Kne and Fisher publish The Spatial Edge: The Strategic Advantage of GIS Skills Across Higher Education
Tom Fisher and Len Kne’s book, The Spatial Edge: The Strategic Advantage of GIS Skills Across Higher Education, “uses a series of case studies to show how integrating a geographic approach can unite campuses and address challenges by fostering spatial thinking across academic disciplines and university operations”. This guide illustrates how GIS is being used in a variety of creative ways to support teaching, research, community engagement, facilities management, and workforce development. The publication also exemplifies the outstanding collaborative work that takes place at the University of Minnesota.
The duo is well suited to discuss this topic given their roles at the University of Minnesota. Len Kne (MGIS 2009) is Director of U-Spatial with extensive background in GIS development, implementation, and project management. He was also co-editor of Building The Spatial University with Steve Manson and others. Tom Fisher is a distinguished professor of architecture and Director of the Minnesota Design Center. His expertise includes GeoDesign, including serving as co-editor of The International Geodesign Collaboration, Changing Geography by Design (ESRI Press, 2020), with Carl Steinitz and Brian Orland. MGIS student Ankila Kumari made valuable contributions to the volume through her work as a research assistant on the book project.
The release of this book is well timed with the announcement of the Elevate Extraordinary 2023 Roadmap at the University of Minnesota. One of the five key imperatives is to “serve communities through knowledge creation and exchange in the arts, health, healthcare, and the economy.” A key action within this imperative is to establish “leadership in mapping and spatial technologies for data-based decision-making” in making The Spatial University. The Spatial Edge is a guide to help all universities integrate and embrace spatial thinking and “use GIS to proactively solve challenges at your campus to benefit management, students, and staff.”
