Iris Patten Colloquium Speaker November 22, 2013, 3:30pm

Friday, November 22, 2013, 3:30pm
The University of Arizona, Harvill Building Room 404
Coffee and cookies begin at 3.
School of Geography and Development Colloquium Series Presents
Iris Patten, Assistant Professor of Practice, School of Geography and Development
“Developing Tools for Suitability and Community Values for the Land Use Conflict Identification Strategy (LUCIS)”
 
 
Population and employment trends in the United States point to increased populations, in major jurisdictions and rural areas.  The optimistic perspective is that we believe that we live in a responsible society and naturally people and employment needs will be balanced with those of the environment.  There is also the pessimistic approach that believes jurisdictions will continue to be pro-development and ignore the needs of the environment as it accommodates human demands.  Or we could take a probabilistic approach and believe that jurisdictions and policy-makers will employ public participation, technological tools, and informed design to understand the land use needs of future populations and undertake balanced land use planning.  This presentation explores the probabilistic approach and its application to the Tohono O’odham Nation, a demographic and land area that demonstrate the sensitivities and extremes that exist in most jurisdictions, in identifying future land use opportunity and exploring the challenges of geospatial decision-making.
 
Iris Patten has degrees in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Florida and in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park.  Her research focuses on using GIS as a tool to solve growth management issues and to help identify opportunities for renewable energy developments. Her current research includes the development of a long range plan for the Tohono O'odham Nation and collaborating in the development of a renewable energy opportunity mapping project. Iris is also a co-author on an upcoming book on advanced land use analysis using the Land Use Conflict Identification Strategy (LUCIS), which will be published by ESRI Press. Previous international research projects include developing a feasibility study for a new housing development in rural South Africa and developing a prototype low cost water filtration system in rural Burkina Faso.