In the Netherlands, the Dutch are using geodesign to address economic sustainability and growth. The Port of Rotterdam is faced with maintaining its status as a major hub in Europe, but without the space to physically grow. The geodesign process was used to test different economic growth scenarios, and model relative impact across those scenarios to support informed decision making.
The saying goes that God created Earth, but the Dutch created the Netherlands. When the Dutch run out of land, they reclaim it. Since the 1970s, the port land area has expanded west into the shallow sea, but it has reached the limits of that trajectory. It was important for the Port to understand how its scarce space was being used, and how different spatial arrangements of container storage and other uses could be leveraged to maximize growth and productivity. Several alternatives were designed in ArcGIS to test ideas for optimizing the use of space, and dashboards were hen used to compare performance across those alternatives. In this way, the Port of Rotterdam was able to see a path to economic growth without growing in physical size.
The geodesign process the Port followed is illustrated below. While the steps (models) don't match Steinitz's terminology exactly, you can see the process in action. Note that in step 5, Evaluation, that specific criteria are in place to measure the success of performance of the design alternatives. These are defined early on when scoping the study area. As you think about your individual project for this course, what are your measures for success? What is your goal for the study area? How can that goal be achieved through actionable and measurable objectives? For example, in the case of the Port of Rotterdam, success was measured in terms of economic growth and environmental sustainability.