patrickbdevaney/mia9 · Datasets at Hugging Face

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Advancing a hyperlocal approach to community engagement in climate adaptation
PLOS Climate \| https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000041 June 8, 2022 8 / 26
by decision makers. Recent approaches to mapping and identifying risk suggest the incorporation of multiple factors into risk assessment, including social vulnerabilities, and identify
challenges related to scale [22]. The Integrated Climate Risk Assessment (ICRA) addresses
both issues of scale (we map risk variation at the level of 30 meters–allowing community members and policy makers to zoom in to see the different levels of risk that occur not only by city,
but often by street, block, or individual parcel) and integrates physical, built, and social vulnerabilities through a model to evaluate and analyze geospatial climate risk factors of the Little
River and Homestead communities. A broad array of 20 geospatial risk factors were assembled
into a map model. Collected largely from public domain sources, these measurable risk factor
map layers include average year built for residential dwellings, the prevalence of air conditioning, proximity to septic systems, housing density, groundwater level, depth to groundwater,
vehicle availability, poverty, coastal flooding, greenness, surface temperature, flow accumulation, proximity to water, proximity to storm water features, slope, average household income,
proximity to public transit, proximity to parks, elevation, and disability. These factors were
chosen based on risk factors identified in the literature and conversation with academic, government, and community organizations. We recognize that these are subjective choices and
that other factors may be seen as important, and hope this provides a model for how to create
integrated risk assessments.
Using the Suitability Modeler in ArcGIS Pro™ GIS software, the values for each of the 20
risk factors were transformed on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) and added into a final
unweighted ICRA score with 200 as the highest possible value or risk. The ICRA map layer
was formatted as a raster dataset with a 30 m resolution, a scale which we consider to be in
alignment with our hyperlocal approach, while mediating the varying scales of the assembled
geospatial layers.
Not all geospatial data sets contained full geospatial coverage resulting in 47% of the county,
mostly in the uninhabited Everglades, without an ICRA score. Of the remaining 53% of the
county that was covered by the ICRA, an urban area of higher population density was delineated to analyze the situation of the Little River and Homestead study areas more accurately
within the broader congruous geography.
The ICRA provides a tool to compare individual communities or neighborhoods on both
individual and aggregated risk. For this paper, we relied on unweighted scores for each risk
level, but the model is built to be adaptable to rankings based on community assessment of variables they view as most important for their local environments.
Additionally, we see the ICRA as a mechanism to compare the type of data policymakers
often rely on to make long-term policy decisions to the experiences of community members as
expressed through photovoice. This allows us to question whether the type of data presented
in the ICRA aligns with the concerns of community members–providing insight into the relationship between community priorities and policy decisions. We believe this approach may
enable greater opportunities for discerning more varied scales and approaches to climate
adaptation.
Procedures
Participants. In total, 28 community members participated in some, or all, of the sessions,
including 10 from Little River and surrounding communities, and 18 from Homestead. Of
those who responded to our demographic questionnaire, our participants were majority
female (n = 11), male(n = 2); reported diverse race/ethnicity—Black or African America
(n = 6), White (n = 3), Hispanic (n = 9), other (n = 3); reported education levels as high school
or GED (n = 1), some college (n = 4), college or technical degree (n = 4), master’s degree or
PLOS CLIMATE
Advancing a hyperlocal approach to community engagement in climate adaptation
PLOS Climate \| https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000041 June 8, 2022 9 / 26
higher (n = 3). Participants ranged in age from 21–54, with a mean age of 34 years. Twelve participants responded that English was their first language while one responded that Spanish was
their first language. Several participants indicated second language proficiencies, including
Spanish (n = 5), English (n = 1), and Haitian Kreyol (1). Participants were split between renting and boarding rooms (n = 5) and home ownership (n = 6) with 2 participants not knowing
or disclosing their housing status. Participants reported living in their community between 1
month and 18 years, with a mean of 8.3 years. The results presented below are derived from
the 22 participants who participated in three or more sessions.
Overall, the demographics of the participants are fairly representative of the communities
at large in terms of race/ethnicity, age, and home ownership versus rental status. Participants
in our study reported higher levels of education and included a higher percentage of women
than the roughly 50 percent ratio reported in both communities.
Sessions. Covid-19 forced a transition from in-person to online engagement. Sessions
were conducted in collaboration with our community partners, The CLEO Institute and Catalyst Miami. The University of Miami HyLo team provided technical support by hosting Zoom
meetings, assigning breakout rooms, collating photovoice stories, preparing, annotating and
capturing design thinking slides, and assisting in facilitation where needed. Community partners led the sessions and served as primary facilitators.
With the shift to online workshops, we realized that interaction would be limited if all participants met in one large group. As such, we designed sessions around breakout rooms that
were limited to four to six participants each. For the Little River sessions, we kept all six community members together who attended beyond the first session; for Homestead, we opened
each session with all members together and then moved into four breakout rooms with four
participants each. Additionally, members from city and county government, including the
City of Miami’s Departments of Planning & Zoning and Public Works, and Miami Dade
County’s Offices of Resilience, and Miami-Dade Department of Parks, Recreation and Open
Spaces observed each session and engaged in discussion, where appropriate.
We opened with a joint session to introduce climate change concepts and the photovoice
process to all participants. We held three subsequent sessions for each location—three for Little River and three for Homestead. We kept the groups separate for these subsequent rounds
given their different locations and to enhance the potential for participants to form a sense of
shared community and focus on local needs. Sessions included photovoice story presentations
and discussion of common themes, an introduction to maps of local conditions relevant to
photovoice concerns, and an introduction to design thinking, with a focus on discovery of
experiences and frames for understanding. A second session of design thinking, through Discover, Framing, and Imagine (ideation and an impact-effort matrix to prioritize potential solutions) advanced to the closing phase of Build with relevant partners and actors identified.
Discussion with key local and government leaders concluded the workshops.
Photovoice coding and analysis. While we provide illustrative examples of photovoice
stories and narratives by community, coding and analysis was designed to provide different
data than would normally be reported in a photovoice study, and to address concerns about
transparency in coding reported in the literature [35]. Rather than focusing specifically on the
narratives, our objective with this study is to compare key concerns across communities–and
as such, systematic coding provides a mechanism for comparison [35]. To address specific
concerns related to each community, we moved beyond the broad themes generated by participants in the sessions to develop a comprehensive set of primary and secondary codes (e.g.,
storms as primary, with wind damage, evacuation, and rainfall as secondary) related to climate
change and adaptation. Photovoice stories were coded based on the most precise code for the
story, and stories could have multiple codes. Additionally, photovoice stories were coded for
PLOS CLIMATE
Advancing a hyperlocal approach to community engagement in climate adaptation
PLOS Climate \| https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000041 June 8, 2022 10 / 26
their valence: positive (opportunity), negative (threat), or mixed (threat and opportunity). For
each photovoice story, we coded the written narratives by first identifying the most prominent
theme, then coded for each additional theme present in the narrative. To determine nuances
in the stories themselves, we engaged in closer analysis that examined the patterns of stories
and how primary and secondary themes wove meaning that is similar or different across communities. To do this, we examined each story for all codes to determine patterns within themes
and subthemes.
Design thinking data and coding. Data for the analysis of design thinking comes from
the annotated design thinking worksheets each group developed as they moved through the
process. There is no current systematic method for analyzing design thinking data and processes. As such, we focus on the evolution of narrative and ideas as they progress through the
process from Discover to Build. We let the themes and progressions speak for themselves
through the broad presentation of data as it reflects both the logics and lived experiences participants incorporate in developing solutions to local problems.
Measures for individual and community capacity. To determine the impact of our process on community and individual capacity we created or adapted existing measures to assess
community assets and risks and to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of our community
engagement process in increasing: social connectedness, community engagement, individual
agency, threat assessment, communication competence, and communication apprehension.

Advancing a hyperlocal approach to community engagement in climate adaptation

PLOS Climate | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000041 June 8, 2022 8 / 26

by decision makers. Recent approaches to mapping and identifying risk suggest the incorporation of multiple factors into risk assessment, including social vulnerabilities, and identify

challenges related to scale [22]. The Integrated Climate Risk Assessment (ICRA) addresses

both issues of scale (we map risk variation at the level of 30 meters–allowing community members and policy makers to zoom in to see the different levels of risk that occur not only by city,

but often by street, block, or individual parcel) and integrates physical, built, and social vulnerabilities through a model to evaluate and analyze geospatial climate risk factors of the Little

River and Homestead communities. A broad array of 20 geospatial risk factors were assembled

into a map model. Collected largely from public domain sources, these measurable risk factor

map layers include average year built for residential dwellings, the prevalence of air conditioning, proximity to septic systems, housing density, groundwater level, depth to groundwater,

vehicle availability, poverty, coastal flooding, greenness, surface temperature, flow accumulation, proximity to water, proximity to storm water features, slope, average household income,

proximity to public transit, proximity to parks, elevation, and disability. These factors were

chosen based on risk factors identified in the literature and conversation with academic, government, and community organizations. We recognize that these are subjective choices and

that other factors may be seen as important, and hope this provides a model for how to create

integrated risk assessments.

Using the Suitability Modeler in ArcGIS Pro™ GIS software, the values for each of the 20

risk factors were transformed on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) and added into a final

unweighted ICRA score with 200 as the highest possible value or risk. The ICRA map layer

was formatted as a raster dataset with a 30 m resolution, a scale which we consider to be in

alignment with our hyperlocal approach, while mediating the varying scales of the assembled

geospatial layers.

Not all geospatial data sets contained full geospatial coverage resulting in 47% of the county,

mostly in the uninhabited Everglades, without an ICRA score. Of the remaining 53% of the

county that was covered by the ICRA, an urban area of higher population density was delineated to analyze the situation of the Little River and Homestead study areas more accurately

within the broader congruous geography.

The ICRA provides a tool to compare individual communities or neighborhoods on both

individual and aggregated risk. For this paper, we relied on unweighted scores for each risk

level, but the model is built to be adaptable to rankings based on community assessment of variables they view as most important for their local environments.

Additionally, we see the ICRA as a mechanism to compare the type of data policymakers

often rely on to make long-term policy decisions to the experiences of community members as

expressed through photovoice. This allows us to question whether the type of data presented

in the ICRA aligns with the concerns of community members–providing insight into the relationship between community priorities and policy decisions. We believe this approach may

enable greater opportunities for discerning more varied scales and approaches to climate

adaptation.

Procedures

Participants. In total, 28 community members participated in some, or all, of the sessions,

including 10 from Little River and surrounding communities, and 18 from Homestead. Of

those who responded to our demographic questionnaire, our participants were majority

female (n = 11), male(n = 2); reported diverse race/ethnicity—Black or African America

(n = 6), White (n = 3), Hispanic (n = 9), other (n = 3); reported education levels as high school

or GED (n = 1), some college (n = 4), college or technical degree (n = 4), master’s degree or

PLOS CLIMATE

Advancing a hyperlocal approach to community engagement in climate adaptation

PLOS Climate | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000041 June 8, 2022 9 / 26

higher (n = 3). Participants ranged in age from 21–54, with a mean age of 34 years. Twelve participants responded that English was their first language while one responded that Spanish was

their first language. Several participants indicated second language proficiencies, including

Spanish (n = 5), English (n = 1), and Haitian Kreyol (1). Participants were split between renting and boarding rooms (n = 5) and home ownership (n = 6) with 2 participants not knowing

or disclosing their housing status. Participants reported living in their community between 1

month and 18 years, with a mean of 8.3 years. The results presented below are derived from

the 22 participants who participated in three or more sessions.

Overall, the demographics of the participants are fairly representative of the communities

at large in terms of race/ethnicity, age, and home ownership versus rental status. Participants

in our study reported higher levels of education and included a higher percentage of women

than the roughly 50 percent ratio reported in both communities.

Sessions. Covid-19 forced a transition from in-person to online engagement. Sessions

were conducted in collaboration with our community partners, The CLEO Institute and Catalyst Miami. The University of Miami HyLo team provided technical support by hosting Zoom

meetings, assigning breakout rooms, collating photovoice stories, preparing, annotating and

capturing design thinking slides, and assisting in facilitation where needed. Community partners led the sessions and served as primary facilitators.

With the shift to online workshops, we realized that interaction would be limited if all participants met in one large group. As such, we designed sessions around breakout rooms that

were limited to four to six participants each. For the Little River sessions, we kept all six community members together who attended beyond the first session; for Homestead, we opened

each session with all members together and then moved into four breakout rooms with four

participants each. Additionally, members from city and county government, including the

City of Miami’s Departments of Planning & Zoning and Public Works, and Miami Dade

County’s Offices of Resilience, and Miami-Dade Department of Parks, Recreation and Open

Spaces observed each session and engaged in discussion, where appropriate.

We opened with a joint session to introduce climate change concepts and the photovoice

process to all participants. We held three subsequent sessions for each location—three for Little River and three for Homestead. We kept the groups separate for these subsequent rounds

given their different locations and to enhance the potential for participants to form a sense of

shared community and focus on local needs. Sessions included photovoice story presentations

and discussion of common themes, an introduction to maps of local conditions relevant to

photovoice concerns, and an introduction to design thinking, with a focus on discovery of

experiences and frames for understanding. A second session of design thinking, through Discover, Framing, and Imagine (ideation and an impact-effort matrix to prioritize potential solutions) advanced to the closing phase of Build with relevant partners and actors identified.

Discussion with key local and government leaders concluded the workshops.

Photovoice coding and analysis. While we provide illustrative examples of photovoice

stories and narratives by community, coding and analysis was designed to provide different

data than would normally be reported in a photovoice study, and to address concerns about

transparency in coding reported in the literature [35]. Rather than focusing specifically on the

narratives, our objective with this study is to compare key concerns across communities–and

as such, systematic coding provides a mechanism for comparison [35]. To address specific

concerns related to each community, we moved beyond the broad themes generated by participants in the sessions to develop a comprehensive set of primary and secondary codes (e.g.,

storms as primary, with wind damage, evacuation, and rainfall as secondary) related to climate

change and adaptation. Photovoice stories were coded based on the most precise code for the

story, and stories could have multiple codes. Additionally, photovoice stories were coded for

PLOS CLIMATE

Advancing a hyperlocal approach to community engagement in climate adaptation

PLOS Climate | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000041 June 8, 2022 10 / 26

their valence: positive (opportunity), negative (threat), or mixed (threat and opportunity). For

each photovoice story, we coded the written narratives by first identifying the most prominent

theme, then coded for each additional theme present in the narrative. To determine nuances

in the stories themselves, we engaged in closer analysis that examined the patterns of stories

and how primary and secondary themes wove meaning that is similar or different across communities. To do this, we examined each story for all codes to determine patterns within themes

and subthemes.

Design thinking data and coding. Data for the analysis of design thinking comes from

the annotated design thinking worksheets each group developed as they moved through the

process. There is no current systematic method for analyzing design thinking data and processes. As such, we focus on the evolution of narrative and ideas as they progress through the

process from Discover to Build. We let the themes and progressions speak for themselves

through the broad presentation of data as it reflects both the logics and lived experiences participants incorporate in developing solutions to local problems.

Measures for individual and community capacity. To determine the impact of our process on community and individual capacity we created or adapted existing measures to assess

community assets and risks and to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of our community

engagement process in increasing: social connectedness, community engagement, individual

agency, threat assessment, communication competence, and communication apprehension.