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Ingenuity for El Ingenio is a case study to address the challenges that marginalized communities in Puerto Rico suffer, mostly from natural hazards, due to settlements in high-risk areas and deteriorating infrastructure. The case study was developed by an interdisciplinary group of students from the University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras School of Architecture and students from the Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying and the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez, as part of the course “Design-Build Project Delivery” in the RISE-UP program. The project contemplated spaces for a family/group of four people, in the neighborhood Ingenio in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, which is a community exposed to multiple natural hazards including hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods. The design parameters for the project included a set budget of $40,000 USD for the construction of four temporary housing units, requirement to withstand the impact of multiple natural hazards, as well as being simple to build and be able to operate independent to power and water grids during an emergency. The resulting design provides 270 sq ft. of usable space and can partially function off the grid due to solar energy generation and water storage. Local materials were implemented, and a manual of components and suggested construction methods was developed. This experience showcases the benefits that an interdisciplinary-integrated approach to infrastructure design can have on producing rapid and efficient design solutions to challenges caused by natural hazards, in resilient and sustainable ways.
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Principles for collaborative risk communication: Reducing landslide losses in Puerto Rico
Landslides are frequent and damaging natural hazards that threaten the people and the natural and built environments of Puerto Rico. In 2017, more than 70,000 landslides were triggered across the island by heavy rainfall from Hurricane María, prompting requests by local professionals for landslide education and outreach materials. This article describes a novel collaborative risk communication framework that was developed to meet those requests and shaped the creation of a Spanish- and English-language Landslide Guide for Residents of Puerto Rico. Collaborative risk communication is defined here as an iterative process guided by a set of principles for the interdisciplinary coproduction of hazards information and communication products by local and external stakeholders. The process that supports this form of risk communication involves mapping out the risk communication stakeholders in the at-risk or disaster-affected location—in this case Puerto Rico—and collaborating over time to address a shared challenge, such as landslide hazards. The approach described in this article involved the formation of a core team of government and university partners that expanded in membership to conduct collaborative work with an informal network of hazards professionals from diverse sectors in Puerto Rico. The following principles guided this process: cultural competence, ethical engagement, listening, inclusive decision making, empathy, convergence research, nested mentoring, adaptability, and reciprocity. This article contributes to the field of risk communication and emergency management by detailing these principles and the associated process in order to motivate collaborative risk communication efforts in different geographic and cultural contexts. While the work described here focuses on addressing landslides, the principles and process are transferable to other natural, technological, and willful human-caused hazards. They may also serve as a roadmap for future partnerships among government agencies and university researchers to inform the cocreation of science education and outreach tools.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1635593
- PAR ID:
- 10338637
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Emergency Management
- Volume:
- 19
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 1543-5865
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 41 to 61
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.5055/jem.0547
