When I first encountered computer mapping as a graduate student at Harvard University, I was inspired by a simple idea: When we better understand geographic relationships, we make better decisions about land, natural resources, communities, and the environment. This idea has guided my life.

For nearly 60 years, I have watched the powerful mapping and data management technology known as geographic information systems (GIS) evolve from a little-known experimental technology into a global platform used by millions.

We can now observe the Earth with unprecedented clarity, integrate vast amounts of information, model complex systems, explore alternative futures, and share knowledge almost instantly.

Yet despite all this progress, I am more concerned about the future of our planet than at any other time in my life.

We are living through an extraordinary paradox. Our knowledge and technological capabilities have never been greater, yet our ability to apply them collectively to the most serious challenges facing the planet remains inadequate. We possess enormous amounts of information, but we often lack a shared understanding of what is happening. We have powerful tools, but we do not always have the cooperation, coordination, or willingness needed to act at the necessary scale.

The challenge of the 21st century is no longer simply how to advance human progress. It is how to advance while sustaining the natural systems upon which life depends.

The health of natural systems profoundly affects our own prosperity, security, health, and resilience. Droughts, wildfires, floods, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and extreme weather remind us that our future is inseparable from the condition of the world around us.

The relationship is reciprocal. As we shape the Earth, the Earth shapes us.

For business leaders, these forces arrive as disrupted supply chains, higher insurance costs, and limits on water and land, and each one has an address.

Learning to understand and manage this relationship may be one of humanity’s greatest intellectual and moral challenges. It invites us to move beyond the notion that human development and environmental stewardship are competing goals. Increasingly, they are inseparable.

This is fundamentally a geographic challenge because it involves understanding the relationships among natural and human systems across space and time.

GIS provides a digital framework for integrating, analyzing, sharing, and applying knowledge about our world. GIS enables people to understand not only what is happening, but also where it is occurring, why it matters, who is affected, and what can be done about it.

When geographic knowledge is connected and shared across many people and organizations, something larger begins to emerge.

Developing a Collective Geospatial Intelligence

Increasingly, GIS is being used as a platform for organizing and integrating many types of information and knowledge created by diverse networks of individuals, organizations, communities, and disciplines. This integration represents what I call collective geospatial intelligence.

But collective geospatial intelligence is not created by technology alone. It emerges when people share knowledge, connect perspectives, work from trusted evidence, and collaborate across boundaries toward common goals.

The next challenge is turning this shared knowledge into practical action.

Transforming Knowledge into Action: The Geographic Approach

Early in my career, I realized that geography’s greatest value was not simply in describing the world. Its real power was in helping people understand the world and make better decisions.

This idea is expressed in what we now call the geographic approach, a practical method for transforming geographic knowledge into action.

Measure. Visualize. Analyze. Design. Evaluate. Act.

Understanding the present condition, what is, is only the beginning. We must also consider what could be and what should be.

Bringing geographic analysis into planning and design allows leaders to create and compare alternative futures before decisions are made. Alternative plans can be evaluated for economic performance, environmental impact, social benefit, equity, resilience, and long-term sustainability.

These decisions should not be left to experts alone. Citizens, scientists, planners, business leaders, and policymakers can use maps to explore alternatives together, understand trade-offs, and build shared solutions.

Through this process, geographic knowledge becomes practical wisdom, helping communities and businesses make more informed decisions and create a more sustainable and resilient future.

AI Can Enhance the Process

While I recognize that significant challenges remain with AI, my sense is that it can strengthen every stage of the geographic approach. AI is already helping us extract information from imagery, sensors, and other data sources. It can identify patterns, automate analysis, support new forms of visualization, and make GIS more accessible through natural language and intelligent assistants.

But AI should not replace human judgment, responsibility, or creativity. Its greatest value will come from augmenting what people do and helping them explore possible solutions.

Geography gives AI context. GIS connects it to places, relationships, and real-world conditions. Human values and judgment give it purpose and direction.

Together, geography, GIS, the geographic approach, and AI can help us better understand complexity and make more informed choices.

An Emerging Human Capability

While it is still early, decisionmakers around the world are beginning to use the geographic approach to understand complex challenges that span environmental, social, and economic systems. Businesses are improving efficiency while reducing environmental impacts. Urban planners are balancing growth with sustainability. Emergency managers are coordinating responses to natural disasters. Scientists are monitoring ecosystems and climate change. Conservation organizations are protecting biodiversity and restoring critical habitats.

These efforts share a common pattern. They apply the geographic approach to transform information into shared understanding and shared understanding into coordinated action.

Humanity may be entering one of the most consequential periods in its history.

For centuries, progress has been measured largely through economic growth, scientific discovery, technological innovation, and improvements in human well-being. These achievements are real and important. But progress must now also be measured by our ability to sustain the natural systems that support life.

The future will not be determined by technology alone. It will be shaped by what leaders and decisionmakers choose to see, understand, value, and do together.

I believe we can still tip the balance toward a more sustainable future.