RESILIENT communities workshops
Following months of data analysis and mapping, our multi-disciplinary team of professors and students from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Department of Forest Resources, and Department of Landscape Architecture developed and led a series of public workshops along the North Shore of Lake Superior. First in Duluth and then in Lutsen, the team introduced some of the most current climate projection maps for the North Shore and led participants in an exercise to develop thicker narratives and context for these coming changes and began discussions about how to approach design decisions and share priorities.
This project sought to integrate biophysical, social, and economic data with partnerships including local units of government, regional resource managers, recreation and tourism professionals, and local business owners to meet the needs of key stakeholders. Our work leveraged these research investments in order to integrate data on multiple stressors and impacts into a common social and ecological risk assessment framework.
Our specific objectives were to:
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Design focus groups and community charrettes to identify stressors of concern, assess preferences and values for different freshwater ecosystem services and evaluate community capacity to respond to a changing environment.
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Integrate spatial data on stressors and freshwater ecosystem services and values into a geospatial database for visualization and analysis.
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Co-develop recommendations for interventions and investments designed to mitigate risks to multiple freshwater ecosystem services.
The research, maps, planning, and charrettes were developed led by professors: Bonnie Keeler Ph.D. (PI), Mae Davenport Ph.D., Karen Lutsky, and their research assistants: Annamarie Rutledge, Zoe Weingarten, Sarah Fellows, Ryan Noe, Nathan Vikeras, Jamison Stallman. This work and these workshops were funded and supported by a grant from SeaGrant Minnesota award number NA18OAR4170101.
The following images capture some of the maps and themes developed through this process, the workshops themselves, collages created by participants, and narrative maps based on narratives and themes voiced by participants.
