Greater Phoenix 2100 Project

[Initiated and operational: 2002]

The policy decisions that we make today will determine the quality of our environment 100 years in the future. To think clearly about sustainability, we must understand the relationships between all the variables involving human interaction with natural systems—past, present, and future. Nowhere is this more essential than in an area such as metropolitan Phoenix.

Arizona State University is taking the lead in understanding the cultural, socioeconomic, and physical setting in which we find ourselves by learning how to plan ahead—in a 100 year time frame. An interdisciplinary team of ASU scholars is addressing the issue of environmental sustainability for the region by creating the first “atlas”—actually a series of interactive multimedia atlases—that will provide researchers and planners with a comprehensive look at all the factors that will determine our impact on the regional environment 100 years in the future.

The Greater Phoenix 2100 Project is compiling, synthesizing, and analyzing data on the past, present and future of cultural, economic, ecological, environmental, geographic, natural, and social factors, analyzing the interaction between the built environment and natural systems along multiple interconnected dimensions.

Not only will the Greater Phoenix 2100 Project bring precision and clarity to the critical issues of sustainable growth, it will serve as a prototype for scholars, analysts, and planners around the world. I am committed to making this project a major initiative of the university, and hope that as many as 100 faculty groups engage in this groundbreaking project.