An Interactive Planning Tool for Community Members
Rise Up is designed to be informative about data while also raising awareness among community members about one another’s values and priorities. As a communication method it is unique, as it is as much about fostering people to communicate with one another as it is about providing information directly to participants. The tool is designed to be specific to each application, straightforward and user friendly. The process and engagement components are geared towards highlighting values that people can build consensus. Rise Up has been applied and used within communities; first piloted in Southern Marin County, CA and then iterated upon in the Crissy Field and Presidio region of San Francisco, CA. The most engaging communication component is Rise Up: Game of Tides, an interactive planning game that facilitates conversation for community members. This hands-on game overlays various adaptation tools onto plans to develop either a 3-foot or 6-foot sea level rise scenarios.
Rise Up’s model codifies sea level rise planning into three digestible steps: (1) Sea Level Rise Overview (presentation to community), including Sea Level Rise Basics; Asset and Vulnerability Asset and Mapping; and Adaptation Inventory and Assessment, (2) SLR Planning Game – Rise Up: Game of Tides (community engagement) and (3) SLR Vision Report-Out (presentation of community’s results). Results of the community process are used to inform adaptation policy and design. Replication of the process holds potential for cross-comparison among coastal communities to disseminate strategic thinking and inform regional SLR planning. CMG’s role in all community process is to facilitate the conversation – giving the community the tools they need, stepping back and allowing them to be actionable over their own neighborhoods.
Sea level rise adaptation is one of the most challenging issues in the coming century, with imminent large-scale disruption and displacement for coastal communities that will affect all related economies. We must rise as a collective community and decide what the future of our coastal communities will be.
