#Community-driven Design

Designing Technological Interventions to Increase Communities’ Climate Resilience from the Bottom Up

Natural hazards, such as floods and wildfires, increasingly impact our lives severely, requiring everyone living in risk areas to become climate resilient. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research has explored climate change and sustainable user behavior but has yet to understand its role in developing and maintaining climate resilience. In this program, we have several ongoing projects aiming to design interventions that increase awareness of natural hazard risks and mitigation opportunities, use playful interaction experiences that increase engagement, compassion, and motivation, and tie into local resources, skills, and socio-cultural settings. Interim results show that technology is deeply entangled in the process of increasing climate resilience and empowering communities from the bottom up. However, there are also risks and dangers involved in potential misuse, fake news, etc. The work is highly relevant to bridging the last mile gap of enabling and empowering local communities to prepare for, deal with and bounce back from natural hazard impacts. Sidenote: Projects are partially under submission or still ongoing