SESSION B6-C - Connective Tissue: Landscape Architects as Facilitators of Community-Focused Climate Change Response
Landscape architects possess the expertise, skill sets, and processes to support underserved communities in developing, advocating and advancing environmentally-responsible and socially-just mitigation and resilience solutions, thus filling a critical gap in providing more equitable responses to climate adaptation. This presentation will share processes implemented by the Coastal Dynamics Design Lab at NC State University to collaborate with a number of communities in rural North Carolina on resilience-building initiatives, focusing on filling personnel capacity gaps, providing site- and project-specific technical assistance, and pursuing and managing non-traditional funding streams to achieve community resilience goals. The presenters will highlight one community in active recovery from major flooding events, following an arc of collaboration several years in the making that spans from early engagement and planning to implementation of several built projects, including: streetscape revitalization, nature-based solutions, and the elevation / floodproofing of commercial buildings. The presenters will also share how lessons learned from these efforts inform strategies for subsequent partnerships within other communities, and how these services represent an emerging market for landscape architects.
Learning Objectives:
Learn how landscape architects can situate both traditional and non-conventional services to fill capacity gaps within small and underserved communities, particularly those recovering from or preparing for natural disasters.
Gain an understanding as to how projects can be scoped and developed to align community needs with external resources (e.g., grants).
Learn how project typologies commonly developed by landscape architects can be scaled and phased to support immediate recovery and long-term rebuilding needs within a community.
Lecture format
Leslie Bartlebaugh
Leslie is the Extension Specialist in the Coastal Dynamics Design Lab (CDDL) at NC State University’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning (LAEP), where she also teaches courses focused on landscape ecology, plant identification, and ecological planting design. Her current scholarship and focus in the CDDL includes innovative planning, engagement, and implementation strategies for flood recovery and resilience programs, leadership in identifying, facilitating, and overseeing the implementation of community resilience initiatives, and research on landscape ecology and ecologically focused planting design.
Travis Klondike
Travis serves as the Associate Director of the Coastal Dynamics Design Lab (CDDL) and an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning (LAEP) at NC State University. His work focuses on helping communities better adapt to natural hazards and climate change by leveraging contemporary methods of geospatial analysis, public engagement, visual narration, and grant-writing as catalysts for public good.