Azine

Azine Spalding is a student at Sonoma State University, graduating class of 2021. She is an Environmental Studies and Planning major with a concentration in Urban Planning. Her interests are ever-expanding, with topics such as renewable energy, transportation, adaptive reuse, environmental health, and gentrification.

Through her work as an intern at Buildaberg, Azine has developed a website featuring cluster mapping, a 3D model of a parklet, collected a vast pool of economic development policy from many jurisdictions. Additionally, she has analyzed many articles and journals on a weekly basis to write and reflect on.

Disaster Resilience and Resilience Hubs

https://cnsmaryland.org/interactives/fall-2019/hubs/index.html

https://www.policymap.com/2019/07/what-makes-a-resilient-city/

Disaster resilience is an area’s preparedness in the event of a disaster. There needs to be a plan in place that allows for an area to go through a disaster, and come out with as little damage as possible. The BRIC (Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities) index by outlining six areas of focus when it comes to disaster resilience: social, economic, infrastructural, community capital, institutional, and environmental. Each area of focus is scored, to compare and determine the resiliency of a community. The site provides a map of Greater Houston, with a legend displaying the disaster resilience of each county. By following BRIC, each focus area can be strengthened, creating a prepared community, which is essential in the face of a disaster. Resilience hubs are centers in a community where residents can come in the event of a disaster for supplies, power, and much more. Resilience hubs are starting to become more prevalent in today’s world, where natural disasters are the norm and cities need access to sustainable resiliency. An example provided in the text regarding supplies found within hubs outlines that snow blowers and other tools can be stored in these hubs for communal use. Another point is discussed within a hub leadership group: the goals of the hub and of the leaders must center around the needs of the people. In addition, in regular city settings, there needs to be acknowledgement of income gaps between people and communities and address the way people are living within these communities. There is a lot of work that is yet to be done to make these hubs successful places, but the ideas thus far are very good, with very good intentions.