俞孔堅：地理設計展望

　　2013年10月28～29日，北京大學成功舉辦了地理設計國際會議。在Esri公司（特別是Esri中國）的慷慨贊助下，大會聚集了世界頂級的跨學科的地理設計研究和實踐團隊，包括地理設計先驅者卡爾•斯坦尼茲和史提芬•歐文，在地理信息與空間分析方面卓有貢獻的科學家邁克爾•F•古特柴爾德、伊恩•畢夏普和矢野桂司，著名的景觀與空間規劃教育家、研究者弗雷德里克•斯坦納和克里斯托弗•吉魯特，地理設計先行實踐者石川幹子、亨克•J•舒爾滕、道格拉斯•奧爾森和艾略特•哈特利，技術革新者威廉姆•R•米勒（Esri公司地理設計服務商主管）和克里斯托弗•卡佩里（Esri全球業務總監），以及政府決策者章新勝（世界自然保護聯盟理事會主席）和董祚繼（國土資源部規劃司司長）。會上，38位嘉賓發表了精彩的演講，來自10多個國家和中國30多個省市的500余名代表參加了大會。與此同時，近10萬名場外觀眾觀看了大會在線直播，并通過新浪微博（一種類似推特的中國微型博客服務）參與了會議的交流與互動環節。據我所知，這是在中國乃至亞洲舉辦的規模最大的地理設計國際會議。

　　關于這次大會的起源可追溯到兩年多前，當卡爾•斯坦尼茲教授和我在哈佛大學地理信息中心共進午餐，討論什么是真正的"地理設計"以及為什么地理設計如此重要時。斯坦尼茲教授將地理設計簡單地定義為一種"通過設計改變地理環境"的方法。但是，景觀設計師、城市規劃師、土地利用規劃師和區域規劃師，甚至包括農民，正在通過設計來改變地理空間形態—這就是為什么我們要討論地理設計的原因所在。“我們需要組織一個會議來對地理設計進行研討。”“為何不在中國——這個地理空間形態變化如此迅速且亟需設計的引導的地方——舉辦這場會議？”“我們可以邀請來自世界各地的頂級專家共探地理設計”。由此，卡爾向Esri創始人兼總裁杰克•丹杰蒙德寫信咨詢其為本次會議提供贊助的可能性。隨后，哈佛大學斯蒂芬•歐文教授也加入到了會議的先期籌備團隊中。我們很快就確定了會議的主題——“地理設計：人地關系優化設計的理論與實踐”。2012年9月，杰克•丹杰蒙德來到北京參觀了北京大學和土人設計近年來完成的課題和項目，他發出驚嘆：“你們所做的正是地理設計！”杰克對在北京大學召開地理設計國際會議非常支持，他表示，“在北京大學召開首屆亞洲地理設計會議是一個非常好的提議，Esri將對其進行全力資助。”這就是此次地理設計會議的由來。

　　什么是地理設計？為什么要討論地理設計以及地理設計是做什么的？基于這個優秀團隊為期兩天的集中討論（團隊成員均為地理設計研究和實踐領域的開拓者和領導者），加上我個人的理解，我謹代表大會主辦方做以下總結：

　　地理設計是一種思考方式（是什么），旨在解決復雜的空間問題（做什么）。這類問題的復雜性超出了人腦的認知和理解能力，因此，借助系統的地理信息系統和空間分析工具進行計算和提出相應的解決方案變得尤為必要（為什么）。

　　今天我們所面臨的挑戰非常巨大且日益復雜：氣候變化、糧食安全、城市化、地下水位下降、空氣和水污染，以及生物多樣性的減少等—以上列舉的僅是很小的一部分。為了解決這些問題，我們需要大數據和系統的解決方案，這些均超越了任何個人頭腦的能力范圍。設計，作為一個解決問題的專業，需要充分利用現有的豐富數據來應對現代挑戰。地理設計則為我們提供了一種提升能力的方法，即利用大量的信息技術、強大的計算工具和大數據，聯合多方利益相關者和愈來愈多的參與者，采用合適的方案去解決我們目前所面臨的挑戰。地理設計將有望提升整個設計行業，以滿足時代的需求。

　　In 28th and 29th of October, 2013, Peking University hosted the Geodesign International Conference. With generous sponsorship from Esri (Esri China in particular), this conference assembled the very best team in research and application of geodesign, across the disciplines, including geodesign forerunners, Carl Steinitz and Stephen M. Ervin; dedicated scientists in geographical information and spatial analysis, Michael F. Goodchild, Ian Bishop and Keiji Yano;prominent educator and researchers in landscape and spatial planning, Frederick Steiner and Christophe Girot; leading practitioners of geodesign, Mikiko Ishikawa, Henk J. Scholten, Douglas Olson and Elliot Hartle; technique innovators, William R. Miller (director of geodesign services) and Christopher Cappelli (Esri corporate director); and government policy-makers, Xinsheng Zhang (president of IUCN) and Zuoji Dong (director of Planning Division, Ministry of Land and Resources). In total, 38 distinguished guests delivered speeches to an audience of over 500 delegates coming from over 10 countries and 30 provinces in China. Meanwhile, near 100,000 people watched the live video online and were involved in real time interactions through Weibo.com (a Chinese Twitter-like micro-blogging service). To my knowledge, it is the largest international conference on geodesign in China and Asia.

　　The story of this gathering goes back two and half years ago, when Professor Carl Steinitz and I lunched together at the Geo-information Center in Harvard, discussing what is really "geodesign", and why geodesign is important. He defined it simply as a method to "change geography by design". But, as landscape architects, city planners, land use planners and regional planners, and even farmers, we are changing geography by design — so why geodesign?"Sounds we need a conference to talk about that." "Why not in China — the geography is changing rapidly and badly need design?" "We will need to assembly the best experts from around the world to talk about that." This led to Steinitz writing a letter to Jack Dangermond, the founder and president of Esri, seeking a possibility in sponsoring such a conference. Soon after, Stephen Ervin from Harvard also joined the pilot team to pursue this event. We agreed on the theme — Geodesign: Maximizing Beneficial Impacts. Not by coincidence, in September, 2012, Dangermond came to Beijing to see what we were doing here at Peking University and Turenscape. "Ow, what you are doing is all about geodesign." "It is a great idea to have the first Asian geodesign conference here at PKU, and Esri will sponsor it." Dangermond immediately saw the potential of holding the conference here at Peking University and was very supportive. The result is this unprecedented gathering of geodesign pioneers here today.

　　What is geodesign? Why geodesign and for what do we geodesign? Based on the two days’ of intensive discussion among the members of the dream team, who initially defined and are leading this new field of research and practice, and based on my own understanding, I would like to take this opportunity as the conference organizer, to make the following summary:

　　Geodesign is a way of thinking (the what) in finding solutions for complicated spatial problems (for what). Because of their complexity, which goes beyond the human brain’s capacity of cognition and comprehension, it becomes necessary to depend on some systematic geographic information system and spatial analysis tools to compute and assist in coming up with appropriate solutions (the why).

　　The challenges we are facing today are big and becoming more and more complicated: climate change, food security, urbanization, ground water drop, air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity — to name just a few. To solve these problems, we need big data and systematical solutions, which are beyond the capacity of any single human brain. Design, the profession of problem solving, needs to harness the wealth of data available in meeting our modern challenges. Geodesign gives us a way to extend our capability, with the vast information technology, powerful computation tools and big data, multiple shareholders and ever increasing participants, to conceive appropriate solutions to address our present challenges. Geodesign promises to upgrade the professions of design to meet the demands of this era.

　　2013年10月28~29日，地理設計國際會議在北京大學召開，來自世界各地的38位嘉賓發表了演講。照片中為大會的主旨報告嘉賓（從左至右依次為弗雷德里克•斯坦納、艾略特•哈特利、威廉姆•R•米勒、隋殿志、史提芬•M•歐文、石川幹子、亨克•J•舒爾滕、卡爾•斯坦尼茲、伊恩•畢夏普、章新勝、矢野桂司、邁克爾•F•古特柴爾德、克里斯托弗•卡佩里、道格拉斯•奧爾森 、董祚繼、俞孔堅）（2013年10月28日攝于北京）。

　　October 28th ~ 29th, 2013, Geodesign International Conference was held in Peking University. 38 distinguishedguests from all over the world delivered speeches. Keynote speeches of this conference (From left to right are Frederick Steiner, Elliot Hartley, William R. Miller, Daniel Sui, Stephen M. Ervin, Mikiko Ishikawa, Henk J. Scholten, Carl Steinitz, Ian Bishop, Xinsheng Zhang, Keiji Yano, Michael F. Goodchild, Christopher Cappelli, Douglas Olson, Zuoji Dong, and Kongjian Yu) (Beijing , October 28th, 2013).

原文出處：俞孔堅.(2013).地理設計.景觀設計學,1(6):5-7.
Source: Yu, K. (2013). Geodesign. Landscape Architecture Frontiers, 1 (6):5-7.