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Abstract
By definition, sustainability is a decision-centric concept that seeks to identify a set of conditions the environmental system can support in perpetuity without experiencing functional degradation. Although comparatively simple to understand in the abstract, sustainability carries an implicit temporal dimension that frustrates measurement and assessment. Managing the balance between the ideals of economic development and environmental quality over what remains a poorly articulated time horizon, however, complicates the decision-making process and the realization of sustainability programs. Therefore, policy instruments with established sustainability goals require a means to track human progress and modify planning directives as regional development unfolds. In this article, the role of geospatial analytics is examined as one approach to guide the measurement, assessment, and projection of land use intensity metrics derived from moderate resolution satellite imagery. Geospatial analytics directs attention to large or complex data sets and the integration of geographic information system functionality with dynamic numerical modeling to uncover structures and trends in data that illuminate significant patterns of interest. Adopting this strategy in the context of sustainable development facilitates the proactive thinking needed to implement sustainability agendas and formulates an expression of sustainability in a manner sensitive to its future-oriented nature.
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James Lein
JAMES LEIN is a Professor in the Department of Geography at Ohio University, Clippinger 122, Athens, OH 45701–2979. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include environmental geography and the relationship among land development, resource use, and the examination of human impact on the patterns and processes that characterize the physical environment.