GeoMap: Climate Change
As the world wrestles with climate change and looks for solutions to both offset the damage done and limit future impacts, behavior change alone may not be enough. Geoengineering is the use of engineered solutions to alter the Earth's climate system to mitigating the adverse effects of global warming. Ideas include creating or preserving polar ice, removing greenhouse gases from the atnosphere and using particles to reflect solar radiation.
Geoengineering is still a controversial topic that causes many people to think of Snowpiercer. The US National Climate Assessment, the UN and many others have called for more research into the potential good and bad of geoengineering projects. To help climate researchers advance the space and move from research and theory to practice with the deployment of prototypes, the ASU CIC envisions GeoMap - an interactive index of global projects with an assessment to provide a way to measure the projects viability, maturity and impact. Think Charity Navigator for geoengineering projects.
This clearing house will establish a central source for geoengineering projects and information to help advance research, promote the general understanding of geoengineering and facilitate the move to the tactical application of solutions.
Problem
Climate researchers and practitioners working to stop global warming and the negative impacts of climate change have limited information on geoengineering projects. In order to advance knowledge and awareness of genoengineering there is a need for a centralized source to learn about projects in all stages of development. Sharing information will help climate researchers improve the ability to develop and deploy prototypes of geoengineering solutions.
Approach
GeoMap is designed to advance society's understanding of climate projects leveraging subject matter experts and technology. GeoMap creates one source to see the complete universe of projects and how the projects rate according to a standarized project assessment. Ultimately, GeoMap provides awareness and information to help drive the conversation and advance the potential for deploying well-designed engineering solutions at scale.
GeoMap is an interactive website that allows project owners to submit information on projects and for climate researchers to explore the most comprehensive source of information. It is expected that not all information will be submitted directly. To solve for this, GEOMAP includes webscraping tools that comb the Internet for information on projects that can then be added to the site.
The GeoMap assessment is designed to provide a standarized rating on projects by examining the viability, maturity and impact of each project. The assessment is developed and updated by a steering committee of global geoengineering experts. The assessment is designed to provide the public guidance on which projects are being well-run, ethical and likely to have a positive impact.
Supporting Artifacts
The Amazon Working Backwards process produces three artifacts - a Press Release, a list of Frequently Asked Questions, and a Visual depiction of the user experience. You can find the Tactical Geoengineering artifacts here:
Next Steps
The ASU CIC is working to develop a prototype of the proposed solution and an infographic to better explain geoengineering.
About the ASU CIC
The ASU Smart Cities Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) is a strategic relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is supported by AWS on ASU’s Innovation campus - SkySong. The mission of the CIC is to drive Innovation Challenges that materially benefit the greater Phoenix metro area and beyond. The CIC will do this by solving pressing community and regional challenges, using shareable and repeatable technology solutions from ideation through prototype, as a service for the greater human good.
The CIC also provides real-world problem-solving experiences to students by immersing them in the application of proven innovation methods in combination with the latest technologies to solve important challenges in the public sector.
The challenges being addressed cover a wide variety of topics including homelessness, water conservation, vandalism, pedestrian safety, digital service delivery and many others. The CIC leverages the deep subject matter expertise of government, education and non-profit organizations to clearly understand the customers affected by public sector challenges and develops solutions that meet the customer needs.
For more information on the ASU CIC, to read about projects or to submit a challenge, please visit https://smartchallenges.asu.edu.
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