Bioregional Analysis & Planning

This year’s Bioregional Planning Fall 2019 course embarked on a new project to wrestle with the future of the Wasatch Front. The course was an intense initiation into planning methods, theories and frameworks that are intended to help the student understand and evaluate long-term impacts of decisions and policies created today. Much of the course was spent working on a relatively new planning process as part of the International Geodesign Collaboration. Students worked through numerous iterations of posters, spatial analytics and value statements to come up with the studio project theme, Wasatch Front Planning 2050: Growth Meets Hazard.

As if long-range planning is not hard enough, students worked on integrating the unpredictability of natural hazards into the mix. Some of these hazards are very visible to the public (e.g. air quality), but earthquakes, floods, fire, and liquefaction (combination of earthquakes, soils and water) are not always on the radar of the general public and are sometimes difficult to characterize in planning processes, as these risks are not easy to quantify and the when and where of their impact are uncertain. Juxtaposed to these risks is the 3rd fastest growing region in the United States with a 47% population increase from 2010 to 2018. It is also unique: a metropolitan area boasting world-class skiing and hiking, flanked by the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau. The draw from these natural features, combined with a high birthrate and high immigration from other parts of the United States, has put the population of the Wasatch Front on track to double by 2050. This growth presents both opportunities and challenges, straining the valley’s ability to provide for its citizens and exacerbating natural and man-made hazards such as bad air, limited water, wildfire risk, and earthquake risk. Growth will likely replace agriculture and outdoor spaces with sprawling development.

Students hosted a GeoDesign workshop with professionals from government, industry, academia, and NGOs, as well as students from Dr. Keun Park’s GIS for Environmental Planning course.

To gain insight into the public process, the class organized a Geodesign Workshop with dozens of professionals invited from outside the department to partake in a collaborative design process. The students organized the workshop, in partnership with GeodesignHub, integrating students from LAEP’s Introduction to GIS course, and over a dozen individuals from outside the university with other faculty experts participating in the activity. The students prepared for the workshop by generating a number of different models, ranging from process models (the way systems function) to change models (quantitative geospatial metrics). After the workshop ended, students spent the last three weeks of class pulling together the variety of different planning ideas to develop different possible outcomes for these scenarios (no adoption, early adoption and late adoption). Each of these scenarios were assessed across the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to identify the impacts of each. The results of this project will be part of the International Design Collaboration Conference February 2021.

Below: Maps highlighting possible housing density trajectories used to explore the balance for a thriving ecosystem, housing, agriculture, water, and public spaces.

Early Adopter 2050

Non Adopter 2050