InTeGrate

Classes start next Tuesday, so I am finalizing the syllabus. I plan on implement the Map your Hazards! Module from March 22 to April 7. I will do one unit per week, and focus specifically on flooding since we are in a flood prone area and we have had lots of flooding this very winter (see image below). My class, Geography, People and the Environment, is quite large (85 students registered as of today), so I reckon my big challenge is going to be to handle such a large class size…

The three main activities/units are: mapping hazards and vulnerabilities (Unit 1), assessing people’s perceptions of risk and vulnerabilities (Unit 2), and communicating vulnerabilities and risk to stakeholders (Unit 3).

My next steps for implementation are: a) to figure out the areas for the Unit 1 hazard and vulnerability maps – I would like to use 3 or 4 local examples, some of them rural, so I need to figure out the appropriate spatial resolution; b) to finish adapting the survey for Unit 2 in google docs (I have made some progress adapting the survey already); c) prep for the stakeholder communication unit (I have not done anything about that unit yet), and d) since one of my colleagues, Jon Remo, has taken lots of pictures of the recent flooding (he took the one below), prepare a set of introductory slides on local flooding problems.  

Image courtesy of Prof. Jonathan Remo (http://cola.siu.edu/geography/faculty-staff/faculty/jonathan-remo.php)