Water Always Wins

Like many of the water detectives I met, they use spatial mapping software from Environmental Systems Research Institute. ESRI was founded by a low-key, humble guy named Jack Dangermond and his wife Laura. Jack Dangermond grew up in Southern California in the mid-twentieth century. His parents owned a plant nursery and the whole family spent a lot of time in nature. Like Yu, Dangermond also studied landscape architecture at Harvard (though a bit earlier), where he was introduced to making maps on computers. He realized there was a database underneath the maps, and this inspired him to build databases that would allow him to model natural processes and human behavior. ESRI can map watersheds from mountains to ocean, modeling floods, plant succession, infrastructure, and much more to help us move beyond single-issue problem solving. The tool allows us to get our minds around complex systems and their interrelated challenges, such as how to prevent biodiversity loss, build smarter cities, and reduce resource waste. A specialized add-on called arcHydro includes data from hydrologists to better predict rainfall and flooding.