Abstract

Tipping Points and Indicators: A SDSS for Great Lakes Communities
Track: Urban and Regional Planning
Authors: Jarrod Doucette

The way humans utilize the land has strong consequences for topics ranging from water quality to biodiversity. These impacts are pronounced in the Great Lakes states due to extensive agriculture and urban development. To protect the natural resources in this region, it is crucial to understand human-induced stress in the region, identify indicators of natural resource condition, and determine the tipping points at which systems enter undesirable states.
The Tipping Points & Indicators website provides a Spatial Decision Support System that helps communities understand and plan for these issues. It is based on ArcGIS Server and Joomla, and implemented through php and javascipt. At its core is a guided overview of the community's land use and its effects on the community's natural resource assets followed by several action plan wizards for addressing specific natural resource concerns. Spatial analysis tools, dashboards, and what-if scenarios help the community explore their changing landscape.