GeoAdaptive opens its first Latin America office-branch in Chile to offer intelligence services and strategy for development and sustainability

In 2017 Santiago (Chile) registered one of the highest temperatures in its history, exceeding the 37°C mark. Considering the recent surge of climatic variations related to rising temperatures —just as the heatwaves and wildfires in California— it is expected that this phenomenon will continue occurring, affecting the quality of life of millions of people. These are the opening remarks of the video (https://vimeo.com/250118488) GeoAdaptive has prepared to launch its first office in Latin America, located in Santiago, Chile. With this video, GeoAdaptive hopes to show the public how, through the integration of scientific rigor and creativity, it is possible to deliver solutions to current global challenges.

GeoAdaptive (http://geoadaptive.com/) is a global think-tank and consulting company driven by scientific rigor and creativity to deliver meaningful impact across territories, communities, organizations, and businesses. GeoAdaptive aims to provide solutions to address complex problems and challenges in a variety of topics, such as socioeconomic development, poverty alleviation, environmental conservation, climate change adaptation, and business intelligence. The think-thank seeks to unlock potential in their clients by seamlessly integrating research, data-driven analytics, strategy, and design.

The company was founded in Boston in 2007 as a spin-off of research lab out of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). In 2017 they opened an office in Turin, Italy, and now their third office in Santiago, Chile.

“Chile is a solid platform and, comparatively, the spearhead in Latin America for new paradigms of work strategies, professional services, and problem-solving methodologies,” says GeoAdaptive’s founder, Juan Carlos Vargas, from Boston.

“We decided to establish an office in Santiago, since Chile has a competitive advantage in the region in terms of advanced human capital, which facilitates innovation, a process that is central to our work. In addition, we detected that for both the public and private sectors, the objectives of equality, inclusion, sustainability, and adaptability are integral to economic growth and this unequivocally requires new ways of working that can incorporate multiple levels of information,” states Flavio Sciaraffia, director in Chile.

Territorial intelligence for two municipalities in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago

“As part of the launching of the new office in Chile, we wanted to contribute to a contingent global-problem, but with a local manifestation. We decided to focus on the unusual increase of temperatures in Santiago over the last years, particularly during the summer. In the video we show how we can objectively understand the problem, represent and quantify its distribution, and propose solutions. Although beyond potential solutions, the long-term objective is to foster a mentality change in decision makers regarding the possibility of approaching and understanding a complex problem with no apparent solution. We believe that once you manage to achieve this change, you can also transform the way people make decisions, allowing naturally happening solutions in the form of projects or policies,” assures Flavio.

As the video shows, temperatures affect the municipalities of Santiago and Providencia differently due to inherent variations in building density and vegetation. Urban vegetation has the ability to cool down the environment through the photosynthesis process and the shade it provides. The analyses —done with satellite and geospatial technologies— allowed the measurement of temperatures and tree canopy coverage in each municipality, providing relevant information to address heat-waves and heat island effect in the metropolitan area of Santiago:

• The analysis of over a thousand streets, showed that the streets of Providencia have twice the tree coverage than those of Santiago; this translates in the possibility of providing twice the shade at critical hours. Therefore, Santiago exhibits a wider distribution of higher temperatures compared to Providencia, since the latter municipality is crisscrossed by forested streets that cool the urban environment.

• The comparison of the temperatures every 25 meters along two streets (one in each municipality) found differences of over 7°Celcius (12.6°F). This highlights the importance of urban vegetation in regulating temperatures and, therefore, fostering a better quality of life.

The information provided by advanced analytics, as seen in the video, would allow municipalities to detect critical areas affected by rising temperatures, thus improving the social and environmental benefits of municipal programs and investments, such as parks, landscaping, and urban forestry management.

“Today, there is awareness that problems have multiple variables, are complex, require an integrative view, and therefore, new methods of work, professional practice, and joint decision making. In addition, resources are limited and the idea of a product as a final outcome is no longer viable: there is also the need to understand process as a product in itself, since change is a constant factor in any challenge. With the new office we added to our global network, we hope to be a contribution to the multiple challenges faced by Chile and the region,” concludes Juan Carlos.