Evaluation of community-based land use planning through Geodesign: Application to American Indian communities

Abstract

Indigenous planning scholars have called for a planning framework that prioritizes Indigenous and community values and traditions while incorporating western planning techniques. Geodesign, an interdisciplinary planning method that uses systems thinking, geospatial technologies, and community participation to address environmental, social, and governance issues throughout the planning process, offers a framework that meets the needs of Indigenous planners and communities. In this paper, we demonstrate that the Geodesign framework enables American Indian community members to be intrinsically involved in the planning process and empowers them to contribute local knowledge and perspectives for community-based decision making and land use plans. We show how the the Geodesign planning framework was utilized to develop and update a community-based land use plan for the Navajo Nation’s Dilkon community and discuss the framework’s strengths, limitations, and opportunities for planning. The case study illustrates how the Dilkon community was able to use the Geodesign framework to overcome planning barriers and advance a community plan that is consensus driven, supported by geospatial technologies, and takes into account Indigenous values and traditions.