Risk & Vulnerability

This is an image of a viney plant This is Lesson 5 of Project Resilience curriculum.

Students are introduced to the concepts of risk and vulnerability by considering the different factors that can cause a community to experience more land loss.

Learning Objectives

  • Students will understand the difference between risk and vulnerability.
  • Students will be able to identify and analyze the risks impacting their coastal communities.

Materials

Preparation

  • Print out copies of the Barry Closes In article and Communities at Risk Student Sheet. One article and map per group.
    • The Barry Closes In article can be replaced with an example of an event relevant to your community, or a more recent event that students will know about. Select an article that illustrates vulnerability and a community's response to an environmental threat.
  • Plan student grouping arrangements. Each group will need to assign a team/table leader and a recorder. The team/table leader will help lead discussions and project design. The recorder will keep notes for the group.

Directions

Vulnerability vs. Risk (15 min)

  1. Ask: What did you & your family do to prepare for a tropical storm/hurricane, like Barry?
    • If you are using a different community event, discuss how your students and their families prepared for the event. These actions may include a family emergency plan and will differ depending on the type of community event.
  2. Tell students that resilience requires taking steps to be prepared for emergency events. Remind students of the definition of resilience (Slide 59), which was also discussed in Lesson 4. The actions a community will take to be resilient are different depending on their specific vulnerabilities and risks. Communities will have different vulnerabilities and risks depending on the community's makeup (location, median resident age, etc.).
  3. To highlight that vulnerabilities and risks are different for each community, have students consider how people that live in Grand Isle prepared for Tropical Storm Barry as compared to how those that live in Houma prepared. Grand Isle is outside of the Morganza to the Gulf levee system, while Houma is inside the levee system. Ask students: what would the people in these communities do to prepare for the storm?
  4. Have students read through the Houma Today article Barry Closes In and highlight or circle examples of what people did to prepare for the storm. Using a different color or notation, note what the concerns or threats were.
  5. Introduce the definition of vulnerability and explain that the concerns and threats highlighted in the article are vulnerabilities (Slide 60). Vulnerabilities are the characteristics of a community that increase the exposure to a threat.
  6. Refer to the map (Slide 60) with Houma and Grand Isle highlighted to illustrate the locations of the two. Ask students: what vulnerabilities might Grand Isle have that Houma doesn't? (Location/proximity to the Gulf, outside vs. inside the levee, limited road access, presence of marsh in Houma but not Grand Isle, lower elevation, etc.).
    • Students should see that Grand Isle is more vulnerable when a storm approaches.
  7. Introduce the idea of risk as a sum of vulnerabilities: more vulnerabilities = higher risk (Slide 61). Both Houma and Grand Isle were vulnerable to wind and water damage during Barry, but the location of Grand Isle was an additional vulnerability that caused them to have a higher risk.
  8. Check that students understand the distinction between vulnerability and risk before moving on. You could have students form pairs and take turns explaining vulnerability and risk to each other. Engage in additional class discussions if needed.

Identifying Communities at Risk (25 min)

  1. Break students into groups. Hand each group one copy of theCommunities at Risk Student Sheet.Using the map (Slide 62), students should identify the top five communities most at risk due to Louisiana's land loss. Students should revisit the list of their environmental problems from Lesson 4 to review the causes and problems of land loss.
  2. Once students identify their five communities, have them identify factors that may increase the vulnerability of each of the communities.
    • Factors could be from the community's environment or the community itself.
    • Environmental factors could include rates of subsidence or loss of wetlands.
    • Community factors may include geographic isolation, the average age of the community, or the community's economic status.
  3. Have students break into pairs (with someone who was not in their group) to discuss the following for 5 minutes:
    • Make comparisons between their lists of communities.
    • What factors would cause flood risk to increase in these coastal communities?
    • Are some places more at risk than others?
  4. Create an imaginary line through the classroom with "resilient" at one end of the room and "not resilient" at the other end. Students should stand at a spot on the line to represent their thinking about the following question:Do you think the communities you chose are resilient or not resilient?
  5. Remind students of the definition of resilience (Slide 59) and that you can become more resilient by decreasing your risks. Have students turn to someone they are standing near and explain why they chose to stand in that location. Note: students do not have to stand only at "resilient" or "not resilient." Standing somewhere along the line represents a gradient.

Wrap Up and Transition (5 min)

  • Introduce students to the idea of coastal protection and restoration. Tell them that once we understand the risk and vulnerabilities of an area, we are better able to become more resilient through different coastal projects. These projects are done at the local, state, and national levels. The Coastal Master Plan is at the state level (Slide 63). The next activity will include a more in-depth look at coastal protection and restoration projects.

Revisit Driving Question Board (10 min)

  • Have students revisit the class Driving Question Board (DQB). You might consider doing this in small groups and then share out as a whole class. Ask the following questions:
    • Are there any questions that we can now answer?
    • Do we want to re-arrange any of the questions?
    • Are there any connections between topics that we should show on the DQB?
    • Would anyone like to add any additional questions?

Assign Journal Prompt #11.

Prompt #11: Reflect on the communities from today’s lesson. Many of these communities are facing increased flood risk due to Louisiana’s coastal land loss crisis. What makes some Louisiana’s coastal communities more or less resilient than others? Explain your thinking.

 

Background

Planning for Resilience

When communities make decisions about what actions to take to build resilience, they have to consider which areas have the most need, and which actions will have the largest impact. Resources such as time and money are often limiting factors, and local governments, and even individuals, must consider tradeoffs when deciding where to apply those resources. Determining risk and vulnerability help people plan and implement resilience efforts.

Risk: Combination of the threat, vulnerability, and consequences.

Vulnerability: The characteristics of a community that increase the exposure to a threat.

  • Factors that contribute to vulnerability:
    • Poverty
    • Geographic isolation
    • Illness
    • Disability
    • Age

Resilience: The ability to recover from, or adapt to, difficulty.

Coastal Protection and Restoration

Local:

Information below from Terrebonne Parish Department of Coastal Restoration and Preservation

  • Mission: to provide aggressive leadership, direction, and consonance in the development and implementation of policies, plans, and programs which encourage multiple uses of the coastal zone and achieve a proper balance between development and conservation, restoration, creation, and nourishment of Coastal Resources in Terrebonne Parish for the enjoyment and long-term benefit of our residents.
  • Responsibilities and Services:This office has a similar focus at the Parish level as the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities does at the State level. This office handles the coordination of Terrebonne Parish’s interaction with the following:
    • CWPPRA
    • Louisiana Coastal Area Study
    • Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
    • Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration

State:

Information below from CPRA & Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan

  • Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the Louisiana Legislature created the CPRA and tasked it with coordinating the local, state, and federal efforts to achieve comprehensive coastal protection and restoration. To accomplish these goals, CPRA was charged with developing a master plan to guide our work toward a sustainable coast.
  • Developed using the best available science and engineering, the master plan focuses our efforts and guides the actions needed to sustain our coastal ecosystem, safeguard coastal populations, and protect vital economic and cultural resources.

Part 1 Extensions

This is an image of a viney plant

Credits

This activity was developed for Project Resilience, funded by the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.