Future landscape architects build #geodesign skills at Esri Canada workshop

The Higher Education group recently hosted students from the University of Guelph and Fleming College at our Toronto office in a series of workshops that provided exposure to the ArcGIS Platform to reinforce geodesign concepts.

During the months of February and March, members of the Higher Education group hosted workshops at our Toronto office for students from the Landscape Architecture program at the University of Guelph and the Cartographic Specialist GIS program at Fleming College. The goal of these workshops was to expose students to the ArcGIS platform, specifically ArcGIS Online, GeoPlanner for ArcGIS and CityEngine, to reinforce geodesign concepts being taught in class.

Sketching based activity using custom feature layers in the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer.

For the uninitiated, geodesign combines geography with design by providing designers with robust tools that support rapid evaluation of design alternatives against the impacts of those designs. In coordination with Dr. Nadia Amoroso (@AmorosoStudio), Adjunct Professor and Sessional Instructor at the University of Guelph, we developed and hosted five workshops using samples and activities where these future landscape architects could design, collaborate, assess and share their work with colleagues and community stakeholders. This opportunity provided exposure to sketching activities in ArcGIS Online, scenario-driven templates for GeoPlanner for ArcGIS and the 3D capabilities of CityEngine using their own project site.

Scenario-based activity using land-use planning templates with GeoPlanner for ArcGIS.

Presentations for the workshops were built using Esri’s Briefing Book, a JavaScript-based application that allows ArcGIS maps and other media to be embedded in an online report. You can find the workshop presentation here.

Thanks to Iain Greensmith (@igreensmith), a Higher Education Analyst at Esri Canada, for contributing this blog post.