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ASLA President-elect Candidates Field Questions on Disaster Response
LAND Online asks what steps candidates would like to see ASLA take to plan for future disasters.
In the second of three questions for this year’s President-elect candidates, LAND Online notes ASLA’s continued response to last year’s Gulf Coast hurricane disasters, and asks what steps the candidates would like to see the Society take to plan for future disasters, and what steps ASLA and landscape architects should be taking now to help mitigate the impact of future natural disasters. Here are their responses:
Van L. Cox, FASLA
These questions are tragically close to home. I live in Louisiana, own (elevated) property in New Orleans, and witnessed firsthand the unfolding and aftermath of the disasters. ASLA's initial response was well-intentioned, supporting physical design changes. True, coastal planning, development, and management attitudes needed overhauls, but failures in leadership and having inadequate plans for dealing with the catastrophic results were the real travesties. Since the hurricanes' greatest consequences were cultural, immediate remedies seemed evasive or outside ASLA's realm.
After the initial shock subsided and those affected secured shelter and food, victims wanted their "favorite places" returned to normalcy and were more willing to listen to planning concepts. In workshops with local leaders, the Louisiana Chapter offered hope for recovery and confidence in the future. It is difficult for ASLA National, perceived as "outsiders," to do the same, but through prearranged alliances with policy makers, local chapter participation, and the Professional Practice Networks, ASLA could develop proactive policies for dealing with future disasters.
Modeling emergency preparedness exercises, ASLA should produce regionally specific response policies based on projected natural disaster scenarios. Through chapters, which have unique knowledge of local natural and cultural systems and are better positioned to advise response teams, ASLA could mobilize more productively. Offering short- and long-term assistance, ASLA staff, and a permanent, disaster-oriented PPN dedicated for that purpose could provide resources when necessary.
Regardless of ASLA's future responses, people will, unfortunately, continue residing in vulnerable coastal lowlands, atop fault lines, or in other disaster-prone areas. In mitigating future disasters, ASLA needs to promote a culture of preparedness and creative development in disaster-prone locales. Educating policy makers about wiser development practices is a daily task for practitioners, and should be a higher priority for ASLA. The unprecedented destruction to the Gulf Coast left most skeptical of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's security promises, but it also gives ASLA lobbying ammunition for ecologically sensitive, natural resource legislation (e.g., coastal zone, wetlands preservation, and restoration acts). It is an ideal time for ASLA to offer FEMA our expertise in working with complex systems, site analysis, and mapping for future disaster relief planning, thereby investing political capital.
Perry Howard, FASLA
Sadly, disasters are becoming more common and predictions are that we will see more and more in the coming years. For that reason we need to develop disaster response and recovery plans, as our sister professions, the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Architects, have already done. Our society should:
1. Develop a disaster response and recovery plan not only for hurricanes and coastal storms, but also for floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, landslides, volcanoes, and even tsunamis. The plan should acknowledge that the first efforts will by necessity be humanitarian, health- and safety-related. Our role will evolve over time as recovery moves to rebuilding. We must define that role and work to make others aware of our abilities and interest.
2. Develop a roster of member volunteers with expertise and interest in disaster recovery.
3. Develop partnerships with allied professions like APA and AIA and with agencies like FEMA and the American Red Cross so that we can maximize our impact and extend our capacity.
The second part of the question is more problematic but is an area where we can and should have an even more important role. One group cannot solve this, but many groups and a well-informed public can begin to make the right decisions. We should take the lead and, partnering with as many groups and organizations as possible, turn the society’s environmental education policy statement into an action item to try to help mitigate the impact of future natural disasters. We can develop education materials for dissemination to the public and public officials. If I might paraphrase ASLA’s environmental education policy, the Society and landscape architects should develop and use varied educational efforts that promote an understanding of natural and managed environments with emphasis on preventing natural disasters in the future. Highest priority should be placed on educating young people, environmental managers, and public officials.
Also, the Society should seek legislation that would develop performance standards, monitor critical sites, and then reclaim, rehabilitate, restore, or mitigate natural disaster-prone landscapes in the United States.
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