Traditional urban design methods focus on the form-making process and lack performance dimensions. Thus, a new paradigm of urban systems design is required in order to address the challenges of climate change by taking the performance of urban systems into account. A multidisciplinary research team from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Tongji University, and Disney Research China has developed an extended geodesign method that emphasizes the links between systems thinking, digital technology, and geographic context. The method explores district-scale urban design in order to integrate systems of renewable energy production, energy consumption, and storm water management; it also provides a measurement of human experiences in cities. It incorporates a geographic information system (GIS), parametric modeling techniques, and multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) tools that enable collaborative design decision-making. The method was refined through a test case, which helps to deepen the current understanding of the interdependence of urban systems.