From Anya:

“I am an architecture student, finishing my final year at the Rhode Island School of Design. I’ve always been interested in how design can play a role in facilitating adaption to our shifting climate.

Starting in the summer of 2019, I began working on a C-AIM project managed by Peter Stempel, Provost fellow at RISD, that used advanced visualizations to engage local stakeholders on issues related to sea level rise and marsh migration in Portsmouth Rhode Island. We developed a range of visualizations and scenarios based on a broad based public survey.

Although sea level rise is conventionally thought of as a problem of inundation, changes in water tables that make septic systems fail, marsh migration, and obstruction of roads due to “king tides” are impacts being felt here and now. By engaging the town and the public on these topics we’re better able to understand likely human responses to these challenges that will affect the ecology of Narragansett Bay for years to come.

Among the things this work revealed was the extent to which community members value the recreation and storm protection beaches and marshes provide. The visualizations we created are already being utilized by the town to apply for grants to adapt infrastructure. Participating in C-AIM has shaped the way I think about the intersection of design, stakeholder perceptions and ecology, and has certainly played a large role in finding where within the field I aspire to work in the future.”

More about Anya’s work: 

Anya’s and Peter’s work with the Town of Portsmouth highlighted by local newspaper

Final work submitted as part of the International GeoDesign Collaboration in February 2020