Over the past couple of months, I have been going back and forth with different ideas for future career paths. Now that we are about halfway done with this program, it’s time to start thinking seriously about where I want to end up. Something that has always interested me and seems more appealing to me as time goes on is a career is disaster and emergency management. This would involve helping developing countries (as well as communities in developed countries) to bounce back after a disaster strikes.
Resiliency is at the heart of this field. In order to create resiliency within a community that has been affected by a disaster, capacity building is necessary. Members of the community learn and complete tasks themselves with the help of aid workers so that in the future they will be more prepared. Natural disasters, such as tsunamis, are predictable to an extent so it is beneficial for the local community to be able to act as quickly as possible if a disaster were to occur. I think that this is a valuable asset for a community to attain, develop and foster, especially when a natural disaster is unexpected.
Something that stood out to me while researching career paths and researching Boulder’s own resiliency is that we are a unique city. Boulder has developed its own resiliency strategies, as it was chosen as one of the first 32 cities in the 100 Resilient Cities campaign. This campaign aims to prepare cities not only for natural weather related disasters, but also social and economic challenges that may arise. I didn’t really think about this aspect before and it was interesting to explore the website and see what issues cities in this campaign were grappling with.
Resiliency in and of itself is a difficult concept to pin down and actually applies to all aspects of a community’s sustainability and wellbeing. After looking through 100 Resilient Cities, I went on a bit of a mission and looked into more applications of resilience theory—which turns out there are many. Just when I thought I had my whole future figured out (sarcasm of course), I went and opened a can of worms on different (and interesting) applications of resilience. Guess it’s back to the drawing board!
Question: What are some social challenges that would require a city/community to rely upon resiliency strategies?
Hey Harsha - I have had similar thoughts regarding the exploration of careers in disaster/emergency management, particularly after talking with Jess about her capstone project on resilience with the City of Boulder (and listening to Greg Guibert, the CRO of Boulder in one of my classes last week).
Anyway, as a fellow New Yorker, I am curious what you think of New York City's resiliency plan that was released in the wake of Sandy and perhaps how your experience during Sandy has influenced the area(s) in which think the city's systems should/could become more resilient. Maybe you could land a job in their Office of Recovery and Resiliency! (http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc/html/resiliency/resiliency.shtml)
Don't fret, I didn't forget your question! I grew up about two hours north of NYC and my town is like many others in upstate NY - struggling economically in the post-industrial era. While it has made progress more recently in terms of economic revitalization, I think many such smaller cities/communities face a challenge in maintaining and supporting the economic health of many small businesses that in some cases are the foundation of such communities. In the context of Boulder, I think a good example would be the cost of housing/living.
Posted by: Andrew Cahill | 03/21/2017 at 03:48 PM