Geodesign, resilience and the future of former mega-event sites

Abstract

Mega-event sites can yield valuable information for urban planning and they provide a remarkable set of cases to study sustainability, resilience and the urban management of public spaces. This chapter examines concepts of resilience and the application of geodesign tools in the context of design and heritage conservation at former international exposition sites. Evaluation of two geodesign tools are derived from a university urban design workshop and a sponsored research project. Resilience is defined in terms of the ability for public spaces to retain a sense of place and history through preservation of historic resources and other cultural assets. The former mega-event sites can also contribute to the resilience of surrounding communities. Design and planning for these spaces requires interdisciplinary planning that responds to changing social and economic conditions and environmental imperatives. Geodesign tools, such as 3D modeling and scenario planning tools, have the potential to aid in this process. However, additional effort is needed to further develop this capacity, especially in terms of bridging different forms of intelligence about architecture, geography and landscape into a unified 3D GIS platform.