The evolution of geodesign as a design and planning tool

Abstract

As the latest evolution of Geographic Information System (GIS) in environmental design, geodesign has attracted multidisciplinary effort from academia, design professions and geospatial industries to define and contribute to its future. For its further development, whether as transdisciplinary collaboration or methodological advancement in specific disciplines, it is critical to elaborate more explicitly the historical context and interactive evolvement of geodesign in relevant disciplines or professions. As response, this article focuses on addressing how key theories, methods, and practical tools evolve over time in landscape architecture and contribute to the emergence of contemporary geodesign along with the advancement of geospatial sciences and technologies. To construct a clear and essential historical transect of the evolving relationship between geodesign and landscape architecture, the discussion is organized into four major eras, i.e., the analogue era, the poor data era, the small data era, and the big data era, from 1850s to present. The article ends with the authors’ prospect on opportunities and challenges toward geodesign in landscape architecture in the big data era.