By Tina Notas and Cheng-Yi Pu
Dr.
Ann-Margaret Esnard, Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning and Director,
GEDDes Computer Lab, Cornell University, presented her research on The Nexus of
Disaster Planning, Geospatial Technologies and Local Land
Use Planning Strategies on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 as part of the SUNY-ESF’s
Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Spring Seminar Series. The
seminar was sponsored by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Foresty, and
its Graduate Student Association, Women’s Caucus, Council of Geospatial
Management and Analysis (CGMA), and Diversity-Council/Office of Multicultural
Affairs.
Dr. Esnard
discussed the issues of zoning and controlling population densities when
considering land planning, and asked the audience to consider whether an area
being developed is concentrated in a hazardous area or one that is vulnerable
to natural disaster. She stressed the importance of creating dialogue with the
people affected by the plan, and establishing decision support systems or
alternative public policies at the watershed level. She also explained that it
is important to understand the weight vacant land holds. A land planner needs
to consider if vacant land is currently zoned as open space and whether there
is potential for development. For
further inquiry into land use planning, Esnard recommended the books Disasters
by Design by Dennis S. Mileti (Director of Natural Disasters Center in
Boulder, Colorado); Cooperating with Nature by Raymond Burby; and
Disaster Resistance by Donald Geis. Esnard stated that the NYS GIS
Clearinghouse is a good source of data for land planners.
Esnard
also presented her experience with Environmental
Justice in Real and Virtual Communities on Wednesday, March 23. She
stressed that, as a GIS user, one cannot be in front of the computer all the
time, but instead needs to learn to receive and use feedback constructively
from the community the planning affects. When reflecting on GIS in this way,
the user ensures the community’s quality of life. On the other hand, if GIS
users stay behind the computer screen, they create assumptions that influence
policy in the mapping program being used.
Esnard discussed
her work with the Community University Consortium for Regional Environmental
Justice that includes New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico, the Iron Bound Community
Corporation (Newark, New Jersey), and West Harlem Environmental Action. According to
Esnard, land planning needs to be democratic, and Community Based Organizations
(CBO’s) need to shape appropriate planning data. Land planners need to ask the
community how useful the data being collected is. Another crucial point made by
Esnard was that GIS planners need to make sure that maps are easily understood
by the audience. Esnard and her students accomplished just that by helping the
Ironbound community in Newark,
New Jersey set up a map of their
community on the Internet. In this way, the GIS users handed off the project to
be continued by the community. Environmental Justice websites that should be
taken into consideration are www.epa.gov/enviro/ej
and the Toxic Release Inventory found at www.epa.gov/tri.
Dr. Esnard
received her B.S. in Agricultural Engineering from University of the West
Indies, and her M.S. in Agronomy and Soils in University of Puerto Rico.
She got her Ph.D. in Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts.
Dr. Esnard’s most recent projects have focused on hazard mitigation planning,
and decision tools for post-disaster planning. She directed the natural hazards
and vulnerability-mapping project for eleven counties in New York State
and for the Tompkins County Chapter of the American Red Cross. She is the
co-author of the Hypothetical City workbook and has written on other topics
that include quality of life and holistic disaster recovery, spatial analysis
of New York metropolitan urban expansion, vulnerability assessments of coastal
and flood hazards, public participation GIS, environmental justice, GIS
education, and ethics.
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