How might you go about creating multiple alternatives or scenarios?

Sometimes, the way toward understanding a problem is not immediately clear. A successful geodesign study will seek to understand what information is needed to develop a strategy that best addresses the problem. This is a key component to understand how, why, and when to apply a geodesign method. The geodesign framework is a tool that guides the geodesign team towards the most suitable solution for a pre-determined strategy.

Often when we attempt to develop a strategy, we fall into the trap of relying on the first well- reasoned strategy that appears to fit with what we know about the problem and the place. Many times this initial strategy is adequate, but it is not necessarily the best. Stretching our minds to consider alternative strategies is a valuable exercise. One way of doing this is applying William Haddon's classification system for problem solving strategies to an issue. Haddon is most well know for his work in promoting highway safety, but the strategies he developed to identify potential ways to mitigate hazards can be applied to many topics.

Haddon proposed ten ways of thinking about potential mitigating solutions that are highly adaptable to the issues and problems presented in geodesign.   His method is a tool that can be used to rapidly develop alternative problem-solving strategies. Some of the strategies may be useful; others may appear to be ridiculous. That’s ok - the goal is to think innovatively about different ways of solving the problem that push us outside of our comfortable and familiar box of concepts, technology, and behaviors. Using Haddon's strategies as a lens to consider potential solutions to the issue at hand, the geodesign team is forced consider other perspectives that they may not have thought of otherwise.

In addition to the examples that Steinitz presents, consider another example in McHarg's New Jersey shore problem (from Lesson 1's readings), and how Haddon's ten strategies could have been applied in advance of a severe storm that may have protected the study area. 

Problem: It is inevitable that a severe storm will approach the shore and cause damage.

Goal: Protect the shore from damages. For this example, “energy” is the tidal waves from the storm.

1. Prevent the marshaling of energy
Adjust the climate to stop a storm from forming

2. Reduce the amount of energy marshaled
Excavate a large, deep trough parallel to the coastline

3. Prevent the release of energy
Stop the storm from moving towards the shore

4. Modify the rate or spatial distribution of the release of energy
Slow the winds of the storms and reduce its destructive power

5. Separate in space or time the energy being released
Place large jetties far out from shore so the greatest impact is away from coastline

6. Separation by imposition of a material barrier
Create a levee to block the storm’s tidal waves

7. Appropriately modify the contact surface
Create only designs and materials that can absorb the storm’s tidal waves

8. Strengthen the structure
Reinforce buildings to withstand the force of the tidal waves

9. Detection and evaluation by generating a signal that a response is required
Evacuate the area that will be affected by the tidal waves

10. Return to pre-event conditions
Redevelop the area to what it was before humans were affected by tidal waves

In practice, we see that not all of Haddon's archetypal strategies will be relevant and within the abilities of the geodesign team and stakeholders to accomplish. In fact, when trying to apply each strategy to a given problem, some of the solutions will appear downright silly or impossible. The goal of this tool is not to discover the solution; rather it is to push everyone to think about the problem from many perspectives and to explore several possible paths to a solution. The geodesign framework will then build on those initial ideas and more completely study, test, and select the most suitable strategy.