Resilient Communities across Geographies

A hybrid of theory and action, Resilient Communities across Geographies uses case studies to examine how global communities use GIS analysis, local knowledge, and engagement to realize resilience.

What makes a community resilient? How do we ensure its sustainable future?

Resilience—the unique ability to positively adapt to changing physical and social environments—is essential for populations of all sizes and locales in today's world of unexpected changes and increasing instances of environmental change. Communities around the globe possess unique combinations of culture, skills, and abilities in context of unique built and natural environments. Identifying and mapping community strengths and resources facilitates effective planning for where and how to focus and manage their unique cultures and characteristics.

Resilient Communities across Geographies is a collection of case studies examining the application of geographic information systems (GIS) to environmental and socioeconomic challenges for analysis, planning, and, ultimately, more resilient communities. Each chapter discusses a spatially driven approach to challenges in geography, social sciences, landscape architecture, urban planning, environmental studies, sociology, economics, migration, community development, meteorology, oceanography, and other fields.

Examples explore both the natural and cultural contexts of climate adaptation in built environments and cultural impacts in a diversity of communities. These include the Martu people of Australia, First Nation youth in Canada, and cultural diversity of indigenous Los Angeles to California farmworkers facing exposure to agricultural chemicals in their communities. Each example applies powerful GIS tools and analysis to document, support, and assess resilience across these unique geographies while recognizing the value and strength which lies in the diversity of the people who live there.

The stories shared within Resilient Communities across Geographies help readers develop an expanded sense of the power of spatial thinking, local knowledge, and engagement to address the difficult problems we collectively face in various locales.

Edited by the authors of GIS Research Methods with a foreword by Esri Chief Medical Officer Este Geraghty.

Preface

Chapter 1. Conceptualizing spatial resilience  Dr. Sheila Steinberg and Dr Steven J. Steinberg

Chapter 2. Resilience in coastal regions: the case of Georgia, USA

Chapter 3. Building resilient regions: Spatial analysis as a rool for ecosystem-based climate adaptation

Chapter 4. The mouth of the Columbia River: USACE, GIS and resilience in a dynamic coastal system

Chapter 5. Urban resilience:  Neighborhood cmplexity and the importance of social connectivity

Chapter 6. Mapping Indigenous LA

Chapter 7. Indigenous Martu knowledge: Mapping place through song and story

Chapter 8. Developing resiliency through place-based inquiry in Canada

Chapter 9. Engaging Youth in Spatial Modes of Thought toward Social and Environmental Resilience

Chapter 10. Health, Place, and Space: Public Participation GIS for Rural Community Power

Chapter 11. Best Practices for Using Local Knowledge

Contributors

Index