We are surface dwellers. Our lives and our well-being depend on the health of the land, air, and waters of this earth. And yet, throughout recorded history, we have treated the land and the landscape as a commodity to be used rather than a living system upon which our children's lives depend. A new human ethic is dawning. It is the ethic of the land—or perhaps the ethic of the earth. And new technologies—like GIS—give us the ability to preserve it, to restore it, and to protect it.
Browse this gallery of examples, exercises, and resources supporting the ideas and concepts presented in Chapter 11 of Smarter Government: How to Govern for Results in the Information Age.