Connecting People to Climate Risks

Throughout the collaborative design process, teams developed tools and events to creatively engage communities, raise awareness about climate resilience, and garner input used to develop the final design concepts.

The Participation + Action + Education Toolkit catalogues tools developed throughout the Bay Area Challenge. It’s designed for people who want to creatively engage their communities in planning for a resilient future. Whether you’re an educator, a park ranger, or community member, hopefully this toolkit inspires you to start conversations within your communities on planning for a rising bay. Essential to the success of these tools is putting race, ethnicity, gender at the forefront of the process to develop equitable practices.

View the Connecting People to Climate Risks: Participation + Action + Education Toolkit here.

Source: Resilient by Design | Bay Area Challenge

Resilient by Design developed guiding principles to frame community engagement throughout the Bay Area Challenge.

These principles were used to help shape the research tours and events in fall 2017. In the Collaborative Design Phase, Design Teams utilized these guiding principles to assist in the development of the engagement tools with the goal of fostering an inclusive, equitable and collaborative design process.

1. Address multifaceted, dynamic issues through collaboration, coordination and connection.
2. Prepare vulnerable communities for a resilient future by addressing our shared history, ecological, economic, and social vulnerabilities that still exist today.
3. Integrate social and ecological systems through rigorous research and a strong understanding of ecosystems, local community, and government challenges.
4. Integrate principles to sustain biodiversity and ecological functions.
5. Merge local, regional, and international knowledge with technical expertise toward implementable and creative design-driven ideas.
6. Acknowledge place and the First Nations of the Bay Area.
7. Develop equitable planning and development practices where community members are true collaborators and participate as equal partners at every level of design formation.
8. Leverage community knowledge and integrate in design to improve and not displace community members.

Source: Resilient by Design | Bay Area Challenge

While everyone is impacted by climate change, low-income and other vulnerable communities feel its effects to a disproportionate degree.

These low-income communities already suffer from existing inequities which include: a lack of economic investments, disproportionately high levels of industrial pollution, greater public health risks, high poverty, inadequate social services, a lack of affordable housing and access to education, among other disparities. Adding the impacts of climate change, such as extreme flooding, extreme urban heat effects, drought, and poor air quality, further exacerbates these inequities.

Climate justice is an equity-centered approach that responds to the disproportionate impacts of climate change on low-income people of color. Climate justice requires:

1. Acknowledgment of the social, economic and health inequities that low income communities of color have historically faced and that are exacerbated by climate change.
2. Action that prioritizes and targets economic resources, clean energy policies, and health protection initiatives in low-income communities of color to ensure that the transition to a clean energy economy occurs on the same timescale for all communities.
3. Fair and just allocation of the benefits and burdens associated with climate change, which includes equitable access to climate change solutions.
4. Focus on local air pollutants as well as global climate pollutants.
5. Increasing access to clean and sustainable technologies, resilient infrastructure and clean energy workforce opportunities within low income communities of color, first and most.

Source: Resilient by Design | Bay Area Challenge

The ‘In It Together’ game is a serious game that brings stakeholders together around a map of the Estuary to cooperatively explore adaptation strategies, weigh their tradeoffs, and achieve greater local resilience.

This game was designed by students at California College of the Arts (CCA), led by Janette Kim. The aim of the game is to educate and spark conversations about how climate change impacts Estuary neighborhoods. Players represent diverse communities and agencies within the Estuary, each with unique goals to build long-term resilience and meet immediate-term needs. In each round, they take turns placing adaptation pieces (e.g., living levees, tidal ponds, greenways, high-density housing) on the map, paying for these actions with in-game currency. As the rounds advance, so too does flooding, taxing players if flood waters reach unprotected buildings or infrastructure. Players can compete or collaborate to realize a win-lose outcome if they individually accomplish their goals or achieve a win-win solution if they collectively score all available ‘Collective Resilience Points.’

This game was co-created with students Shahad Alamoudi, Marwan Barmasood, Georgia Came, Denisse Correa Guerra, Alli Foronda, Eric Fura, Francisco Garcia, Jessica Grinaker, Fathmath Isha, Lori Martinez, Jennifer Pandian and Sabrina Schrader.

Your Turn: Check out the instructions for the game using the link below. Use this game with any 1:400 map of your neighborhood.

Source: Resilient by Design | Bay Area Challenge

CCA students within the All Bay Collective team created a large topographic model of the San Leandro Bay Estuary.

Stakeholders used the model as a speaking platform, jumping into the Estuary at a Project Working Group meeting to point out their hopes, dreams, fears, and ideas for a more resilient Estuary.

Your Turn: Draw a large-scale outline of your shoreline, creek, or region on butcher paper and invite participants to jump in the water and share their resilient visions for that water body.

Source: Resilient by Design | Bay Area Challenge

To increase the visibility of the issue to people at all elevations, generate awareness about the cause, and stimulate a commitment to building resilience, the Bionic Team designed the Flood Mobile (Flo-Mo) with the message that flooding affects everyone and everything.

It will hopefully serve as a tool for community partners to continue their work. Flo-Mo was at many of the Bionic Team’s events and was driven around San Rafael to accompany Canal Welcome Center programming.

Your Turn: Design a narrative about flooding fit to the dimensions of a vehicle and use a vehicle wrapping service. Then drive it around town!

Source: Resilient by Design | Bay Area Challenge