All Blog Posts Tagged 'ACT7' (139)

Charleston and the lowcountry has done many things to help the ecosystem. The main things that they have done are better waste management, testing the local waters, creating mariculture centers like the one in Bluffton that help check the biodiversity of the fish in the local rivers. I have told many of my friends of the city's goals and they responded by how stating that the Citadel does its part by emphasizing recycling in its barracks.

According to the Charleston County Comprehensive Plan 5-Year Review, the county plans on "Completing a detailed food and farm a****sment that maps the local food shed and the farmland required to support it and that makes recommendations regarding planning for a more resilient food supply by protecting adequate land and farms in the surrounding region". This is Charleston Counties Resiliency Plan.

From what I've noticed about my peers, many people my age do not take the time to preserve our planet's resources. While I myself have been guilty of this in the past, wish to talk more with people my age and brainstorm ideas about potential ways to preserve our planet's resources.

In talking with my roommates, I found out they believe that Gainesville is an extremely resilient town and that we could adapt to nearly any change thrown our way because we are a University town and have a campus full of bright-minded people. They liked the resilient strategy that I had come up with if we did have a gas shortage. They also pointed out that more and more students who drive would be utilizing our free use of the RTS bus service to get around town and would only drive when it…

After asking my neighbors about what they thought of Fort Myers', crisis plan, no one knew much of anything. They just assumed that an emergency would never happen to them and that if it did someone important would take care of it and show them what to do. The only thing I could get people to really talk about was the "hurricane evacuation" signs that direct people to higher ground in the case of a flood from a hurricane, and people only knew what they were because they had seen them while…

Because Gainesville is a college town, most students leave the city after they graduate. Because of this, some see this as a temporary residence, meaning they can trash the city because they will move out soon. If there is a better sustainability campaign in Gainesville, run by students, it will be more likely to keep the Gainesville area cleaner. The best point to make to students is that they may return to their alma mater later on in their lives, and that they would want to see a clean,…

Each year the University of Florida has a Greek Water Challenge. The objective of the challenge is to motivate the UF Greek community to reduce water use therefore improving Urban Resiliency. This past year water use was measured weekly from Jan. 20 - March 2. The house with the greatest percent reduction in water use won 100 points. The second place house received 50 points and the third place 25 points. Additionally, there was weekly challenges for earning bonus points. Weekly results were…

To help encourage sustainability throughout the University of Florida I talked to a wide sample of people about the steps the University is taking to encourage sustainable measures. This sample included my roommates, sorority sisters, classmates, and study groups. In casual conversation I brought up issues that were relevant at the time. For example, at my sorority house you have the option of using a glass or a paper cup for your drink at meals. During lunch last week I encouraged those…

I've found that my neighbors know nothing about my city's adaptive capacity. And they think the resilience strategy I uncovered is cool.

Florida Resilient Communities Initiative (FRCI) has teamed up with varying programs and colleges and programs at the University of Florida, such as the College of Design, Construction and Planning (DCP) and the Program for Resource Efficient Communities (PREC) in the Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS). These groups are engaged in collaborative efforts related to creating and sustaining local communities and regions faced with various threats. These threats include resource…

In the city of Fort Pierce, Florida we have a nuclear plant that's located on the coast of the city. Fort Pierce is such a small city whose inhabitants are located around the downtown area of Fort Pierce. The St. Lucie power plant is located about 5 minutes from the downtown area. With that being said, there is a resilience plan in place in case an accident ever happened at the Power Plant.

In case of an emergency, the workers at the power plant have mapped out zones in which parts of…

I think of UF as a little city. UF is always constantly trying to be as sustainable as possible. Also they have a lot of security. There are a lot of police always patrolling and blue light emergency stations.

My neighbors know literally nothing. I'm finding the world very unaware of ANY surroundings lately.

Gainesville has the issue of high turnover in it's residence. Being the home of 40,000 plus college students many are not aware Of my neighbors, only one isn't a student and is a cop, thus knows a good bit about the city just because he works for them. The big initiative here, which not many know of, is 1THING which is dedicated to sustainability in the environment, endorsed by a celebrity singer.Their aim is to serve as a role model for corporate citizenship and make things better for the…

I chose my home city of Tampa, FL because it is somewhat coastal and I know the city has taken extensive measures to ensure disaster preparedness. "The Florida Division of Emergency Management, Division of Community Planning and Department of Transportation in coordination with the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council have developed the Statewide Regional Evacuation Study for the Tampa Bay Region. This report updates the region's evacuation population estimates, evacuation clearance times and…

I like the resilience plans that reflect the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of companies all over the US. Starbucks is a company that seeks to incentivize environmentally sound habits. They offer discounts to customers that use refillable jigs for their drinks and instead of throwing away old coffee grounds, they allow customers to take it home and use it in their gardens. Another corporation that makes a positive impact on the community is the UF Innovation Hub. They allow for more…

I explored the internet to see what urban resiliency plans were in place in Gainesville and learned about an opportunity here at the University of Florida. The UF College of Design, Construction and Planning and the Program for Resource Efficient Communities in IFAS have collaborated to create the the Florida Resilient Communities Initiative (FRCI) which offers communities the technical and capacity building expertise of the faculty, staff, and students of these organizations. They provide…

It is hard to teach people about a topic that I know so little about myself but I asked a few of my friends to watch some of the informational videos with me and it definitely was interesting to learn about urban resilience in our own backyard and what steps we, as community members, need to be taking now.

My neighbors knew very little about the city of Gainesville, FL and its adaptive capacity to disasters. Gainesville is mostly prepared for hurricanes, a problem any Floridian city has had to face. For snow-related problems, Gainesville really is not prepared. As far as hurricanes go, there are hurricane proof shelters and there are also precautionary measures when a hurricane is on the way.

Pinellas County has a coastal resiliency info flyer that I found while searching the internet. It discusses hurricanes, storm surge and coast flooding and how our coast must be prepared for these natural disasters. It used the Coastal Resilience Index (CRI) low-cost self-a****sment tool to a****s how prepared coastal communities are. This is a great way to see how confident communities are to addressing a natural disaster in their area.

Link -…