Creating Sustainable Futures for Southwestern Cities: The ProtoCity Approach in the Ciudad Juarez, Mexico/El Paso, Texas Metroplex - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 542

Protometric Protospace/protopartner

Information
gathering
phase

Development ladder Protosite

Assessment/
learning
phase

Solution sets Interactive simulation

Implementation
phase

Protoscope

FIGURE 31.6
Three phases of ProtoScope.

3. Select strategic local partners oriented around indicators.

4. Set up immersive and interactive simulation experiences, from experimental gam-
ing (informal) to demonstrations with focus groups (formal).

5. Create, leverage or acquire creative financing that bridges issues such as ecoBal-
ance, health and economic development.

6. Assess using built-in feedback mechanisms and replicate successes.

The lessons of our previous work and the phases explained earlier gradually evolved into
a far richer understanding of the city region partially spawned by the complexity of recent
experiences gleaned, from hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Ike. Although they were in many
ways a crisis/reactive condition they were also occurring within societies and cultures
that if they choose could use these crises as opportunities. The following describes the
process as it involves El Paso and Juarez.

31.5.1.3.1 Information Gathering
• ProtoMetric represent the characteristics of a place, based on the biophysical scalar
patterns, identified through trends from world to city/site (Table 31.1). ProtoMetric
utilizes online databases covering ecology, hydrology, climate, and geology/soils
(Figure 31.7).