11.027 City to City – Disaster Planning and Post-Disaster Rebuilding and Recovery
Case Studies: Hurricane Matthew US and Haiti
Sustained Planning and Practice
**updated February 1, 2017**
Lead Instructor: Cherie Miot Abbanat, MIT ()
TA: TBD
Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:00 AM - 12:30 AM in 9-450A.
Start: February 3, 2015
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 12:30-2:30pm 9-520
Phone: 617-320-1136
11.027 Syllabus
Overview
Year after year we witness earthquakes, floods, tornados, hurricanes, and blizzards. And, these events seem to be happening more frequently. We are aware of slow-cooking human disasters on the horizon such sea level rise, glacier melting, and extreme weather patterns attributed to climate change.
Disasters can be the result of natural phenomenon (earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, landslides, hurricanes, and other natural events)human error(BP Oil Spill), disease (Ebola in Africa/Cholera in Haiti) and, more frequently, conflict and terrorism (Boston Marathon Bombing). We can look to the tsunami disasters in Japan and Banda Ache, the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the hurricanes of Katrina and Rita in the US city of New Orleans for examples of disasters that have leveled cities and brought about rethinking and massive replanning efforts. What lessons have we learned about our abilities to pre-plan, respond, and our abilities to offer sustainable, capacity-building approaches? What do we know about response, planning and assessment?
This class is designed to expose you to the cycles of disasters, the roots of emergency planning in the US, how to understand and map vulnerabilities, and expose you to the disaster planning in different contexts, including in developing countries.
We cover topics such as
1. How do we define Disaster?
2. What is the disaster cycle?
3. What are cities in crisis?
4. What can communities do to prepare for the next disaster?
5. What is risk assessment?
6. What tools can planners use to help communities prepare (GIS, Asset mapping, risk assessment, data gathering)
Once we are grounded, then we roll up our sleeves and try to help. The idea is to link students with clients we know in the field who are working to rebuild an area post-disaster. Students often tell me that this class has been one of the most rewarding classes because they have a chance to work with real people doing real work that they admire.
Our clients have been folks such as: New Orleans Housing Authority, New Orleans Transit nonprofit - Transport for NOLA; New Orleans City Planning agency; a non-profit Architecture firm working in Valparaiso, Chile with folks displaced from the fire, NGO JuntoalBarrio — working with distressed neighborhoods in Valparaiso. Tetcho — Chile — rebuilding housing post fire, Habitat Haiti, World Bank (Haiti), among others
One key goal of the class is to help build capacity for NGOs, local governments, and communities.
This year we are focusing on our responses to Hurricane Matthew in the US and Haiti. We will work with groups that might be interested in working with 1 or 2 students this semester on a project related to Hurricane Matthew recovery and rebuilding — mapping, surveying, assessing, etc. Topics can range, but it’s great if there is something that the students can do for you in the field. The students lack experience, for the most part, but are super smart and learn quickly. Some have skills that can be beneficial such as GIS. If you have a bigger project that needs lots of hands, we can sometimes get all the students working on one big project for a day in the field.
One year we all road the busses in New Orleans to track on-time performance, whether the busses actually stopped at the correct bus stops (they didn’t) and also survey riders. One bus actually was late (and we all sat around waiting) because the bus driver waited for one passenger to run to walmart to pay her bill. Another project had us walking a certain street in New Orleans to catalogue problems with the street for the city council office. Another project in Haiti (with Haitian students) had us visiting and surveying different types of temporary housing constructed post earthquake.
The overarching goal is not to add work to already stressed NGOs and government agencies, but to add value. I work closely with clients to figure out a project that might work for the students. Then, I supervise the teams of students to help field and vet questions, help them orient and define goals. We hope to travel to the North Carolina and/or Haiti on or about April 19th or so for 3-4 days to get some on-the-ground experience.
Students prepare a report and presentation for clients on the topic that would be of interest/help to you related to Hurricane Matthew.
City to City is divided into four modules that correspond to the four traditional phases of disaster management (sometimes called emergency management).
Part 1 – Background
Week 1 - February 8th- Class 1 – Introduction
Week 2 - February 13th&15th- Classes 2 & 3 – How do we define disaster?
Week 3 – February 21st& 22nd- Classes 4 & 5 – What is the disaster cycle?
Week 4 –February 27thMarch 1- Classes 6& 7 – What are cities in Crisis?
Week 5 –March 6th & 8th- Classes 8&9 – How can communities respond? -- asset building and Community Development post-disaster.
Part 2 Field Work Prep and Field Trip - -Haiti April 14th through April 18th
Week 6 –March 13th & 15thClasses 10&11 – Fieldwork Prep – Deep Dive into Hurricane Matthew 1 and Meet your clients
Week 7 – March 20th & 22nd- Deep Dive into Hurricane Matthew 2 (interviews from on the ground)
Spring Break – No class
Week 9 – April 3rd and 5th Classes 12&13 – Fieldwork Prep – Hurricane Matthew
Week 10 – April 10th & 12th - Class 14&15 –Reports and Presentations
Week 11 – April 17th April 19th - Classes 16&17 – Trip to Haiti
Week 12 – April 24th & 26th - Classes 18 &19 – Reflection and Work Week
Week 13 – May 1st & 3rd - Classes 20 & 21 – Work Week
Week 14 – May 8th & 9thClasses 22&23 – Final Presentation to Clients and Report Due
Week 15 – May 15th&17th Classes 24&25 – Final Presentations to Clients and Reports due
Assignments and Grading:
1. Online Blog – Research and Reflective Practice
Research and Reflective practice is an ongoing goal of the class. An online blog and class discussion will be used to help students understand the culture, identity, of Valparaiso. In addition, the online blog is intended to deepen your understanding of some of the core issues of planning practice.
Students will be expected to keep a blog where reflection assignments will be completed weekly. These assignments are geared to explore issues faced by planners during the planning process as well as document student professional growth and experiences working in multi-disciplinary teams. Many of the reflection exercises will focus on the following themes and questions:
- How are you combining your values, education and actions in complex situations in the professional work of the class?
- How are you learning from experiences? How are your experiences shaping your view of what it means to be good planner and what you need to be effective as a planner?
What are the key issues, opportunities and challenges of your project? How are these similar to and different from other planning problems?
Prompts for the blog entries will be published on the home page of the blog no later than 5 PM on Wednesdays. Blog entries should be posted no later than 5 PM on the Monday following their assignment. In the event of any technical issues posting to the blog, entries should be emailed to the TA. Entries that are not on the blog or emailed by this deadline will be considered late.
Since there are likely to be times when student courseload is overwhelming, each student will be able to skip two (2) blog posts without penalty. There is no need to notify the professor or TA in advance if and when a blog post is skipped; however, it is the student’s responsibility to keep track of how many posts they have skipped. More than two missing blog posts will negatively affect grading.
2. Disaster Mitigation Plans, Planers and Policies
In preparation for international fieldwork, students will explore and analyze a mitigation planin a US City or Town.
Deliverable: 5- page memo on a disaster mitigation plan.
3. Field Research and Report - Detailed research, analysis and planning in priority areas on-the-ground results:In this second phase, student teams will undertake in-depth research, analysis and design in project areas. Once on the ground, students need to understand the requirements needed to realize goals and opportunities of the projects by assesses existing resources and assets, identifying critical obstacles and resources gaps to address, and defining other factors that shape effective strategies and interventions to generate the client’s desired revitalization goals for the district.
While specific research tasks will depend on the project and the client, tasks may include conducting interviews with key stakeholders, surveying existing district customers and businesses, researching applicable zoning and regulatory obstacles, investigating design options, identifying best practices used in comparable neighborhoods/districts, and analyzing potential resources for implementation.
Based on this detailed research, students will develop findings and recommendations for their final report. These findings and recommendations will be presented to the client in a 5-10 page memo.
Deliverable: 5-7 pageField Report
4. Short Quizzes on Readings
5. Reports and Presentations
Class Requirements:
During the spring semester, the class will meet twice weekly. Monday classes are 1-1/2 hours in length and are devoted to reviewing materials either through lecture, audio, or visual media. Wednesday classes are 1-1/2 hours and will sometimes be used in-class work time, discussion and peer review of work products, and guest speakers. This schedule does not apply to the first two weeks of class, which will be focused on background materials.
This class includes an April Break workshop in a location recovering from disaster in Week 11. Fieldwork and some class lectures will take place during this trip. A final report deliverable is due 1 week after the trip.
Class requirements include reading, ongoing assignments related to development of the project, active class participation, blogging, participation in the field trips, and active involvement in the class. Here are the details:
Class Participation/Attendance: 15%
1stAnalysis Report(draft and revision):15%
Field Travel, Researchand Report (draft and revision):15%
Research Blog: 20%
Pre-trip Report and Presentation 215%
Quizzes: 10%
Final Report10%
Final grades are based on a weighted average for the term. Grade cutoff points are as follows: A = 93-100% B+ = 87-89% C+ = 77-79% D+ = 67-69% A- = 90-92% B = 83-86% C = 73-76% D = 63-66% B- = 80-82% C- = 70-72% D- = 60-62% F = <60
Disabilities If you have a documented disability, or any other problem you think may affect your ability to perform in class, please see me early in the semester so that arrangements may be made to accommodate you.
Attendance is absolutely mandatory. Discussions and targeted presentations will form the heart of the class and determine the direction of exploration for you and the instructors alike. As a project-based course, we will introduce a number of tools that will allow you to explore the city in novel ways. This exploration and the path of the class as a whole will be dependent on your presence and participation.
Peer Review and Feedback: In addition, team members will be asked to provide critical feedback on report drafts, and visual presentations. Much learning happens when we subject our work to review and evaluation by our peers. Many times we cannot see the flaws or problems in our thinking because we are much too close to the material. Peer review and feedback will happen during class time.
Reading Assignments:All readings will be posted on the class Stellar site. It is essential that all reading be completed by the due date and comments, questions and thoughts be offered in class. For this reason, readings have been kept to a minimum so that students can review and digest material prior to class. Pop quizzes help ensure that students stay current with the material offered in the class.