SUS 8300A Applied Resilience by Design

Fall 2022. Subject to refinement/updating.

SUS 8300A AppliedClimateResiliencybyDesign

3 Credits
Instructor: Deborah Helaine Morris
Wednesdays, 6:30pm-9:20 pm
Room: SSA 128
Office Hours, Tuesdays 8:00-10:00am, reserve through: https://deborahmorris.youcanbook.me/

In Person Sessions: August 31, September 7, September 21, October 19, November 2.
Asynchronous class: November 23

Introduction:

Resiliency has captured the imagination of designers, advocates, and scientists as a way to resolve the challenging shocks and stressors of increasing environmental risk. This course will explore approaches to increase the adaptive capacity of the built environment, particularly in relation to climatic risks, the potential compromises inherent in designing change, and ways to productively communicate, learn, and coordinate with a broad range of stakeholders. The focus will primarily be in United States, both in exploring physical challenges as well as developing an understanding of the complex interrelationship of federal policies programs and changes in the built environment.

As climate resiliency requires an interdisciplinary understanding of environmental risk at all scales: we will multi-hazard risk assessment and the interrelationships between natural systems, infrastructure, racial and social equity, and public policy. We will explore potential levers of design intervention in buildings, infrastructure, natural systems, and public policies. Students will evaluate and then develop their own adaptation interventions in policy, civil engineering, landscape urbanism, planning, or building-level projects. Although we will focus our work on New York City, we will also look at other case national case studies.

This course is appropriate for future sustainability practitioners, planners, architects, landscape architects, engineers, and students of public policy.

CLASS FORMAT

Most classes will include a short lecture on the topic of the day and a student-led reading discussion. This course will be offered in a hybrid format to maximize access to accomplished professionals in the field. Although the expected in person sessions are listed below, this is subject to change. Please check blackboard at 5:00 pm on Tuesday of each week to confirm if Wednesday’s class session will virtual or in person.

Course Objectives:

Gain fundamental knowledge of resilient design frameworks and interventions across the disciplines of architecture, landscape, planning, and policy.

• Learn strategies for climate change adaptation and social change in design and policy.

• Understand that addressing complex environmental challenges involves making choices that are made based on the position, perspective and interests of the decision-maker.

• Develop competence in risk assessment.

• Improve your own ability to communicate about trade-offs and consequences of

  decisions made in the built environment.

• Close communication gaps for smoother project management in interdisciplinary

  professional environments

• Develop an understanding of the range of professional avenues for intervention

  in climate risk and adaptation.

  Student-Driven Learning Outcomes

• Develop critical perspectives on community and urban resilience frameworks and projects by evaluating several climate resiliency interventions at a variety of scales.

• Perform a climate risk assessment of a project or place of identified by the student.

• Work as a group to design an intervention responds to identified stressors and promotes climate response, social inclusion, and equity.

  Course requirements:

  Class attendance – you must attend every class meeting. Please be on time and stay until the end of the class. Skipping class or arriving late will affect your grade. Participation grades are given based upon direct contribution to discussions rather than attendance.

• Class participation including daily participation and leading discussions on readings materials (20%);

• A mid-term assignment providing a risk assessment of a project or place identified by the student or group of students (15%)

• A classroom presentation on the risk assessment (15%);

• The main assignment is an individual or small group semester project

  designing an intervention to mitigate risks assessed in student-identified

  project or place (30%);

• And an in-class presentation (20%) on the group project that includes the

  development of a physical communication tool or toolkit.

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Course outline

August 31: Class One (In person)

Defining Climate Resiliency

Class Introductions + Areas of Expertise, Interest, and Growth

Climate science, climate change, and the built environment

NYC: Climate and Sustainability Landscape

In Class Reading Materials:

Keith Gessen, “The Destroy-It-to-Save-It Plan for East River Park

 

:New York’s first climate adaptation battle is here.”

 

Katie Honan and Samantha Maldonado, “For Ida-Flooded Homeowners

 

Denied City Payouts, Legal Options and Political Promises”

 

Annie McDonough “New York City is looking at ‘Band-Aid’ solutions

 

to extreme weather in the near future”

Optional: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability

  

September 7: Class Two (In person)

Lecture:

Theories of Resilience

Hazard Mapping

 

Required Preparation:

100 RC framework:

 

One NYC 2050: Building a Strong and Fair City: pages1-53

Review FEMA Hazus:

https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps/products-tools/hazus

Review Community Risk Assessment Dashboard (try your home

address or place of interest):

https://nychazardmitigation.com/cradashboard/

Optional:

Converge Training Module: Social Vulnerability

https://converge.colorado.edu/resources/training-modules/

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September 14: Class Three (Virtual)

Required Preparation:

Risk Assessment and Communication

Guests from NYC Emergency Management Presentation on NYC Hazard

Mitigation Plan and Grant Program: Heather Roiter, Assistant

Commissioner, Risk Reduction and Recovery, Melissa Umberger, Director

of Recovery and Risk other team members

Group Discussion: Risk Comprehension and Communication

Questions about Midterm Assignment

  

New Normal:

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/orr/pdf/publications/WeatherReport.pdf

 

Review NYC Hazard Mitigation Program, focusing on Hazard History and

Consequence Tool and Mitigations Action Map

https://nychazardmitigation.com/

Optional:

Nathan S Debortoli et al 2018. A systems network approach for climate

change vulnerability assessment Environ. Res. Lett. 13 104019

 

September 21: Class 4: Learning from Resident Experience –

Understanding and Incorporating Perspectives

Guest: Thaddeus Pawlowski, Managing Director Center for

Resilient Cities and Landscapes (in person)

Required Preparation:

Community-driven Climate Resilience Planning: A Framework

 

(Pages 1-46)

New York City Panel on Climate Change 2019 Report Chapter 6:

Community-Based Assessments of Adaptation and Equity

Optional:

Converge Training: Reciprocity in Hazards and Disaster Research

https://converge.colorado.edu/resources/training-modules/

September 28th: Class 5: Climate Change and Municipal Service delivery (virtual)

Presentation: Eric Wilson, Metropolitan Transportation Authority

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Reading: TBD
October 5: Class 6: Buildings, Risk, and the Role of Codes (virtual)

Required: Enterprise Strategies for Multi-Family Building

 

Resilience (Links to an external site.). (This is a manual, so it is long but focus on

 

areas of interest)

Reveal New “The Tide is High” Podcast (55 minutes):

https://revealnews.org/podcast/the-tide-is-high/

Optional:

Keep Safe Guide for Resilient Housing Design in Island Communities (a

similar manual with a broader set of housing types)

:https://keepsafeguide.enterprisecommunity.org/ (Links to an external site.)

 

October 12: Class Seven: Funding Adaptation work (Virtual)

Guest Lecture: Bailey DeRouen, Director of Community Development,

Housing & Infrastructure, Tidal Basin Group

Discussion of Funding Adaptation Work and Midterm Project Questions

Readings: TBD

October 19: Midterm Presentations (in person)

October 26: Class Nine (virtual):

Neighborhood Scale Planning

 

Required:

Resilient Edgemere Community Plan

November 2: Class Ten (tent. In person):

Forms of Intervention: Flood Risk Infrastructure

Port Authority of New York + New Jersey

Required:

Review PANYNJ Climate Resiliency Guidelines

Optional: TBD

November 9: Class Eleven (virtual)

Federal Policies – Flood Insurance

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Guest: TBD

Required: TBD

November 16: Class Twelve (tent. In Person)

Climate Resiliency Case Studies: Nature Based Solutions

Urban Nature Interface/

Guest: Sarah Neilson, Chief of Policy and Long-Range Planning, NYC

Department of Parks and Recreation.

Required Reading:
Design and Planning for Flood Resiliency: Guidelines for NYC Parks

Wednesday Nov 23rd

Class Thirteen: Asynchronous content: Heat

Reading + Content TBD

November 30:

Class Fourteen: Buyout Programs

Reading: Excerpted readsings from Elizabeth Rush, Rising. Others TBD

Course Logistics:

This course is being offered in a hybrid format to take advantage of a broad range of guest lecturers representing a range of perspectives in the practice of climate resiliency. This means, some sessions will be fully in person and some will be online. To create some flexibility and minimize zoom fatigue, some asyncronious content may be offered. All sessions with guest speakers will be live and students will be expected to actively participate in a question and answer session.

Preparation for Discussion

For each class, one team of 2 students will prepare the readings and the conversations with the class. The teams should extract from the readings a number of ‘provocations’, statements or ideas that warrant further thinking and develop prompts or questions for discussion.

Readings

December 7th: Class Fifteen: Final Presentations (Virtual)

Student Presentations and Discussion (Guest Critics TBD)

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Readings will be developed from excerpts of books, as well as scholarly articles, essays, policy reports, short films/documentaries, podcasts, and relevant news articles may be added.

CUNY Academic Integrity Policy

Academic dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York. Penalties for academic dishonesty include academic sanctions, such as failing or otherwise reduced grades, and/or disciplinary sanctions, including suspension or expulsion. This includes:

• Cheating is the unauthorized use or attempted use of material, information, notes, study aids, devices or communication during an academic exercise.

• Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writing as your own.

• Obtaining Unfair Advantage is any action taken by a student that gives that student an unfair advantage in his/her academic work over another student, or an action taken by a student through which a student attempts to gain an unfair advantage in his or her academic work over another student.

• Falsification of Records and Official Documents

  You can read CUNY’s full academic integrity policy here:

  https://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/legal-affairs/policies- resources/academic-integrity-policy/

  CUNY Reasonable Accommodation Policy

  The City University of New York (“CUNY”) is committed to providing reasonable accommodations and academic adjustments to allow qualified individuals the opportunity to participate in programs, activities and employment. CUNY recognizes that there may be times when employees and their supervisors, as well as
  students[1] and their instructors, can resolve accommodation requests informally. However, in many cases, such requests require a more formal process with the request being made to and considered by a designated decision-maker, with the opportunity for an appeal, as provided for in these procedures. The following procedures apply to reasonable accommodations and academic adjustments in connection with:

  • a disability,

  • pregnancy, childbirth, or a medical condition related to pregnancy or

    childbirth,

  • religious practices, and

  • status as a victim of domestic violence, sex offense or stalking.

    

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CUNY will thoroughly review all requests on a case-by-case basis in accordance with applicable federal, state and New York City law. CUNY prohibits retaliation against individuals for requesting reasonable accommodations or academic adjustments, appealing decisions concerning such requests, or for making or participating in claims of discrimination.

All requests for accommodations and academic adjustments, and all supporting documentation, including but not limited to medical information, are considered confidential and will be shared with college officials only on a need-to-know basis. Such documentation will only be used to evaluate the requested accommodation. Employee and applicant accommodation documentation will be kept in a separate file in the Office for Human Resources or the Office of Recruitment and Diversity, depending on which office is evaluating the accommodation request. Student accommodation documentation will be kept in the Office for Student Disability Services, the Office of Student Affairs, or the Office of Recruitment and Diversity, depending on which office is evaluating the accommodation request.

GRADING RUBRIC
Grades are determined by:

Very good (A) Good (B) OK (C) FAIL

              

Overall

Addresses all of the basic content and makes aa sophisticated argument that is memorable and imaginative

Addresses almost all of the basic content + Interesting to read/view

Addresses some basic content

Addresses a small amount of basic content (one item)

and/or numerous digressions/errors . Chaotic.

          

Argument

Argument (text, graphic) is coherent, well organized, has a clear visual and written hierarchy, relevant to the task, interesting, adequately justified, and memorable—engages the reader/viewer with a lively mind; Implementable

Argument is coherent, well organized, relevant to the task, interesting, with adequate justification

Argument is fairly coherent, relevant to the task, and well organized with some evidence and qualifications

Some confusion/ vagueness/parts that don't make sense/missed the point

          

Sources

Sources are cited (using author/date page); an interesting variety of sources used critically

Sources are cited; some are used critically

Some sources are missing

Sources are not cited

    

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Writing

Writing largely free from errors; competently executed; memorable.

Perhaps (but not necessarily) some writing errors, but none critical for comprehension

More than a few writing errors that may impede comprehension

Many careless writing errors that may impede comprehension

          

Participation

Deeply engaged in course conflict. Able to respond and articulate multi-faceted arguments. Responsive and dynamic.

Actively engaged; able to articulate and respond to sophisticated arguments.

Present but sometimes unfocused. May make arguments that are anecdotal or repetitive.

Not an active participant or unaware that the conversation has evolved.

          

Collaboration

Demonstrated leadership in creating and maintaining productive project management. Not only organized, adaptive, and systemic; but able to articulate productive methods for group problem-solving and decision making.

Organized, adaptive, and systemic. Able to articulate roadblocks with accuracy.

Performs tasks but perhaps unable to coach others.

Lost, disengaged and or unresponsive.

          

Graphics

Competently executed; memorable

Perhaps some problems with execution but conveys a message well.

Some confusions or problems with execution that affect comprehension

Many careless errors or paucity of content.

    

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