The Resilience Project

Now, in the final week, your job is to revise, compile, and edit these reports into a summary report of no more than 1,200 words (5 pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 pt. font, excluding figures and references list) that captures your most salient points and significant research.

As you have generated between 2,000 – 3,000 words (8-12 pages) through the process of writing your earlier reports, this step will require careful synthesis of your most significant points. Please review your feedback and comments for your earlier reports as you undertake the process of compiling your final report.

Evidence, Claims, and Sources

The claims in your final report should be supported by a minimum of 10 sources that meet the following criteria:

Use scholarly sources (i.e., journal articles, books published by university presses, etc.), government websites and reports, or publications from any of the organizations the American Association of Geographers: list of leading climate change organizations
(Links to an external site.)
.
You may not use popular sources, including news media, unless you can make a case for the information being otherwise unavailable (e.g., a highly local and well-respected newspaper); however, you may find that newspapers, documentaries, and television news coverage found on YouTube may give you a good illustration of your scenario.

Report Structure

The report will use the Description, Analysis, Projection structure, a common framework used in technical writing:

DESCRIPTION: Describe the evidence for the prediction that your community is vulnerable to the disruption. Explain the related systems as they are supposed to function. E.g., Climate scientists predict frequent and severe storms that will disrupt fuel supply chains and take down transmission and distribution lines. Households are dependent on electricity for a variety of functions.
ANALYSIS: Identify the points of vulnerability, and the current ways the system is resilient or weak. E.g., Describe the backup systems and repair response systems that utilities have for small and moderate disruptions. Describe the key points of vulnerability and limits to their systems. Use historical reports from the media to document your findings. Point out political, economic, and cultural factors that underpin the strengths and weaknesses of current systems.
PROJECTION: Make your recommendations for vulnerability reduction and disruption response. Describe how you might work within existing political, economic and social spheres to implement your recommendations, and the barriers you may face. Describe several community-based social marketing techniques that could be effective for creating the changes you are recommending. E.g., Distributed energy (more off-grid solar systems) might be less vulnerable to outages than our current centralized system. Utility companies have put up legal barriers to off-grid systems. How might we incentivize decentralized solar systems while addressing the legitimate concerns of the utility companies?
Note: You may find this CBSM toolkit
helpful with this section of your report.

Final Report Evaluation

Evidence for the prediction that climate change may lead to the disruption chosen for the project

Description of related systems

Identification and description of vulnerabilities and strengths in existing systems and connections to social/cultural, economic, political factors that contribute to them

Identification of ways vulnerabilities could be reduced, considering potential social/cultural, economic, and political barriers

Identification and description of how a community should plan to respond, including connections to specific community-based social marketing strategies

In-text citations: APA formatted citations are present throughout the report, whenever outside information is included (evaluated in the professionalism rubric)

Writing mechanics (spelling, grammar, and coherency) (evaluated in the professionalism rubric)

Organization and structure (evaluated in the professionalism rubric)

For more information on The Resilience Project read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Resilience_Project