Chairs
Karla Saldana Ochoa (University of Florida)
Francisco Valdez (University of Cuenca)
Daniel Orellana (University of Cuenca)
Christian Calle (University of Florida)
This track encompasses a broad spectrum of topics that harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science to bolster disaster resilience, preparedness, and response while also addressing the critical interplay between climate change and urban resilience. The sub-themes within this track encompass machine learning, data-driven decision support, responsible AI, and the ethical aspects of data governance. It also explores the relationship between people, public spaces, urban mobility, and community resilience—these interdisciplinary discussions bridge theory and policy practice, including data systems and analytics software demonstrations.
SUB-THEMES
Data-Driven Disaster Response
Enhancing Community Resilience through Public Spaces and Mobility
Urban Resilience and Sustainability
Ethical and Governance Aspects
Modeling and Simulation for Data Scarcity
This track unites AI, data science, and urban resilience to foster a future where cities are better prepared for disasters and more sustainable and livable through innovative applications of technology and data-driven insights.
Chairs
Carla Brisotto (University of Florida)
Natasha Cabrera (University of Cuenca)
Nancy Clark (University of Florida)
We used to see disasters as events that draw public and media attention, emergency funding, and disaster management responses. And yet, it is in the communities’ ability to react to these shocks that we can find new approaches to resiliency that can inform how to plan to mitigate disasters in between events.
Van Valen’s Red Queen hypothesis (1973) and its re-interpretation by Telmo Pievani (2022), asserts that adapting to a changing environment requires organisms to engage in an endless race. It is a race that produces unforeseen, unexpected, and transformative adaptations. In the face of a faster changing environment, communities find creative solutions to engage in the race finding their own transformative adaptations. It is in-between these emergencies, that groups explore new possibilities (Atallah, 2022) outside usual strategies of city planning and management. How can we learn from communities’ self-adaptation? How can different communities change their environment to achieve resilience? How can we design the built environment so that communities can be self-resilient?
This track wants to explore the role of communities in building resilience in-between disasters. This is an opportunity to learn from community-based solutions, to understand different communities’ perceptions of space, aesthetics, and place, and to reflect on the importance of experimenting to find innovative resilient designs. In trying to pursue Fuller Bukminster’ idea of “Mak[ing] the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone,” (1960) we must acknowledge that one solution does not fit all and instead a multitude of approaches are more effective.
In this track, we will focus on these evolving opportunities in between disasters. The following are an example of topics but not limited to:
POSSIBLE SUB-THEMES
Communities informing research
Research informing communities
Chairs
Jeff Carney (University of Florida)
Juan Fernando Hidalgo (University of Cuenca)
The impact of climate change is often demonstrated obliquely through complex datasets, statistical risk, and hazard geographies or emotionally through graphic imagery depicting disaster wreckage and loss. This prevailing narrative is abstract, fearful, and negative. Worse, it presents a narrative of disempowered people and communities in the face of overwhelming change. This narrative negates communities’ capacity to adapt and transform when provided viable pathways for change.
This call for posters invites you to submit applied research, engagement methodologies, and case-study projects that seek to elevate strategies for community adaptation and transformation in the face of climate change. Specifically, this poster session will look at techniques including co-design, scenario planning, agent-based modeling, and others that seek to engage climate change risks through the potential that change offers to build a better community.
SUB-THEMES
Visualization of Change
Explorations of What-if questions
Role of Design in Community Dialogue
Chairs
Maria Eugenia Siguencia (University of Cuenca)
Whitt Schroder (University of Florida)
Cleary Larkin (University of Florida)
The poster session on Resilience and Heritage delves into the symbiotic relationship between built heritage and resilience in the face of disasters and dynamic environmental challenges. This poster session explores how preserving and integrating heritage into urban planning and disaster management strategies can foster more resilient communities. Heritage, encompassing historic structures, monuments, cultural landscapes, and traditional architectural practices, not only carries immense cultural and historical significance but also plays a pivotal role in enhancing community resilience. The Resilience and Heritage poster session invites researchers, practitioners, heritage experts, and community representatives to share their experiences, insights, and research findings. Together, we explore innovative ways to integrate heritage considerations into urban planning, disaster management, and resilience-building strategies for a more sustainable and culturally rich future.
SUB-THEMES
Heritage Preservation in Post-Disaster Recovery: Case studies on how communities have utilized their cultural heritage to rebuild and recover after disasters.
Adaptive Reuse of Heritage Structures for Resilience: Examples of how historic buildings and sites have been transformed to serve modern resilience needs.
Building Resilient Heritage Communities: Social and psychological impacts of preserving heritage sites and traditional cultural practices as a means to strengthen community resilience is of particular interest.
Harnessing Heritage for Disaster Education and Preparedness: How heritage-based storytelling, cultural rituals, and traditions can effectively promote disaster awareness and community readiness are sought.
Leveraging Digital Technologies for Heritage Resilience: Use of digital tools and technologies for heritage documentation, risk assessment, and preservation.
Is an urban theorist and urban storyteller with a background in architecture. Carl serves as the Assistant Director of the Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience (FIBER)and Assistant Scholar at the School of Architecture at the University of Florida (UF). Brisotto holds a Ph.D. in Design, Construction, and Planning from UF and a Professional Architecture degree from the University IUAV of Venice. At the core of Carla’s research lies the intersection of urbanism and environmental narratives. Her research focuses on productive landscapes and climate change’s asymmetric impacts on population and their places through contemporary and historical lenses. Carla employs storytelling as a research method and works closely with communities within the Florida Resilient Cities Lab to understand the dynamics of spontaneous urban transformation. Currently, Carla is leading the international project “ReclaiMEDLand” funded by the Department of State of the United States of America, APS–Annual Program Statement 2023.