?????????????? ???????????????? Choose ???Your??? Adventure & Planning for the Unanticipated ???

While pondering and preparing the subject matter for this edition, I started a list of experiences which have sculpted my approach to sustainability.? At the very top of that list is a project that I took on my last semester at the USF Patel College of Global Sustainability which just so happened to occur during the 2017 UNWTO Year for Sustainable Development- a truly unique Capstone Research Project which i referred to as Climate Strange and as you'll see, it lives up to its name in more ways than one. For the record, Sustainable Tourism Related Assessment w/ Geosocial Engagement (later changed to Experiments) was my original intention.

...but before I forget..

Welcome back to another chapter in this story telling through a newsletter experiment simultaneously being utilized for the unravelling of reasons why applied sustainability in communities became important to me. Why is that important? Because I feel like everyone should have access to stories which explain why and how to perhaps think differently about ways to improve communities. This issue is going to be a cool experiment as I am allowing you to choose your adventure. Big welcome to all of the new subscribers! I appreciate your subscription to the newsletter and I hope you will take the opportunity to tell me about your communities in the comments below - introduce yourself. ? I'm excited to say that we have some very special guest posts planned for coming weeks.

This post is all about tying the concepts discussed in the previous posts together. -For those just joining us, in our last edition of Sustainable Communities Newsletter, we discussed reasons I chose to adopt a more holistic approach to / the interconnectedness of sustainability and seeing the big picture.? In the previous week, we reflected on the day I put aside my skepticism and awakened to the possibilities in sustainability as a team effort. We are now ready to transition a bit from the philosophical to the applicable.?

Let's begin by choosing your adventure. After having read the adventures, come back to this post to read the closing remarks and check out some cool tools on the way out..

I learned two valuable lessons from this project but I will not force you to learn both. It is up to you. You have 2 choices from this point forward. First is to choose whether to read the closing remarks before you choose your adventure or come back and read them after you have chosen. Either way, the closing remarks will make a lot more sense having been adventurous enough to adventure...

Choose Your Adventure

Adventure One - Exploring the wonders of data collection while researching the lifecycle of sustainability messaging and pondering opportunities to extend that lifecycle.

Adventure Two - Looking into ways to make any organization paperless while discussing the hidden values of eliminating paper from your community operations.

?? After taking an adventure, please return to here:::::::??????????????

Significance to Sustainable Tourism

Facing the current climate crisis as the threat that it is and following the science is, let's say, one thing. Attempting to mitigate, plan for and rehearse for the probable impacts of sea level rise for coastal communities, for example, is another. Let's say you are ambitious and attempt to combine both locally, becoming frustrated, perhaps, because it still isn't enough -because it only prepares us for what we know today - ie what science knows. The many who dismiss the significance of climate change due to skepticism, frustration with greenwashing, complexity of the data, or whatever the reason, we need to all help one another begin to recognize the strange patterns of weather abnormalities as what they are and collectively assess where we are in respect to them. Those are our sensitive initial conditions when thinking about tourism sustainability. In my view, sustainable tourism provides the most opportunity for hope. Why? Because it has the power to dynamically integrate solutions and best practices across at least 20 recognized subsystems for any community in peril. More on this next week but imagine the ways these subsystems work together to make any destination community desirable for tourism. Likewise, when these systems are not in harmony, there are most likely problems going unrecognized. This is why sustainability management planning is so important for tourism.

In adventure one we learn that any communication lifecycle can be extended by focusing on the current patterns of messaging and looking for ways to amplify the reach. In adventure two, we looked at the hidden powers of going paperless and considered the extension of reach which can occur when combining the elimination of paper and incorporating a feedback component for stakeholders. All of this will become very important in the coming weeks as we begin to discuss the possibilities for a system for channelizing real time data streams by teams across metrics geared for measuring sustainable tourism.

According to the Guardian, "Just 15.5% of the world’s coastal regions remain ecologically intact, according to new research that calls for urgent conservation measures to protect what remains and restore sites that are degraded." We must work together to change this. Sustainable Tourism necessitates a level of collaboration that can withstand the unanticipated-planning for it and developing policy around it. I chose this internship because it was challenging, nontypical and required a creative cultural / anthropological approach. Looking back 5 years later, I see this project as my first attempt at doing something much more which we will be discussing in coming weeks. For me, tourism sustainability is like an undocumented branch of applied cultural anthropology and among the most important challenges we are facing because it envelopes every other system. Energy, water, waste, food, habitat protect, cultural heritage protection etc. are all part of the system of tourism found in destination communities. Working with a traveling theatre company was an uncommon type of internship, requiring participation in multiple locations.? The story they performed resonated in areas of great threat by rising seas as it was woven with warning messages related to climate change, awareness of refugee migrations, critical planetary boundaries and the inevitable whoas of fossil fuel consumption. The 12 aims of sustainability in tourism have been defined by the UNWTO as:?economic viability, local prosperity, employment quality, social equity, visitor fulfillment, local control, community wellbeing, cultural richness, physical integrity, biological diversity, resource efficiency, and environmental purity. As we have learned, these aims are not mutually exclusive. They are intertwined and each of them are connected in ways that may not immediately seem apparent. Changes in one aspect of this system, whether intentional or unanticipated, can have a lasting impact on virtually every other facet of the system.

The Unanticipated

Try for a moment to imagine yourself an artist in a foreign place, living aboard a ship which doubles as your stage. Now try to imagine the challenges of putting on such a production, night after night, each with more precision and accuracy, in the dark, during hurricane season in Florida. As you can see in this video, even when the weather did permit, the neighboring waterside events might become competition for attention and audience involvement. This was not planned for.

Weather refers to short term atmospheric conditions while climate is the weather of?a specific region averaged?over a long period of time.

In sustainability, we look for patterns. Climate is a pattern of weather.? Climate Change is an altered pattern of weather. There are no shortages of studies which conclude that Climate Change is one of the greatest threats (planetary boundaries) faced by humanity today and it is time for us to unite in our acceptance of these altered patterns, in my opinion. Although we have developed many tools for measuring those patterns, our changing climate keeps us reminded that there are still plenty of people out there who believe they have the option to disbelieve it away. Ultimately weather is unpredictable but climate, for the most part, shouldn't be. It is the product of trillions of decisions made over the years by humans with little to no regard for environmental impact, destruction to ecological systems, depletion of finite natural resources. Climate Change, however is not the only crisis we face with the planet. There are actually 9 existential threats that we have a choice to approach as opportunities. We refers to those threats as the 9 Planetary Boundaries and as you can see here, Caravan Stage produced messaging related to 8 of the 9.

With each show's success strongly dependent upon suitable weather conditions, many aspects of the Nomadic Tempest tour were subject to last minute changes. For example, after attending 7 shows in St. Petersburg, it was my plan and intention to then travel to New Orleans to meet the crew for 3 shows.? Nevertheless, these shows never happened due to a 2 week delay of departure due to stormy weather. After they arrived in Louisiana, hurricane force winds prevented the performance from taking place.

Aerial performers could not safely soar above the decks of the Amara Zee when winds threaten stability.? When heavy rain is a threat, the projectionists could not set up their equipment.? Moreover, very few audience members will show up to an outdoor performance when the weather is unfavorable.? It was situational contingencies like these which made practically every aspect of the tour vulnerable to the unanticipated.As luck would have it, my decade of experience in remote web development enabled me to improvise my involvement by working remotely and attending virtually (before Zoom). Looking back, I could't have picked a better research topic.

Shout out to Caravan Stage!

I stopped by the new website to see where I might catch a show. I am happy to see things are as they should be...sailing along. I will always remember the month that Caravan Stage welcomed me into home and taught me so much about living sustainably at sea.

Mapping Tools

How Africa Pays for Climate Change

Over the last year I've been noticing a trend in the focus of climate change visualizations. Instead of concentrating on how the climate is likely to change in the coming decades climate scientists have begun to focus more on how climate change is already impacting the Earth. Of course these impacts are being felt more keenly in many parts of the developing in world. In other words it is the countries who have historically been least responsible for contributing towards climate change who are now beginning to be adversely effected by global heating. [Source]

In?Who Damages the Climate the Most and Who Bears the Consequences?the German newspaper Tagesspiegel looks at the effects that climate change is already having on many African countries. The newspaper uses an interactive 3D globe to highlight some of the impacts of global heating already been seen in many countries, particularly in Africa.

Land Surveyor Tools

Land Surveying Toolkit Navigator - In addition to the other?Member Apps?which are out there in the world being tested and improved through member feedback, each of these toolkits contain apps, tools and directories which will forever be in a state of progressive enhancements.?Your donations towards improving the individual apps and community tools allow us to upgrade them, enhance their features and capabilities.

Surveying Business Toolkit?????

Surveying Jobs Toolkit?

Experimental Surveyor Training Apps

Sustainability Tools

GSTC Criteria & UN SDG Explorer

I've been testing out the new Glide Pages this week. This is an app I am putting together to help those researching or working with GSTC Criteria for Sustainable Development and UN Sustainable Development Goals easier. This will evolve with time.

Global Green Jobs Board - One of the ways that I attempt to create long lasting sustainable change is to help those who are trying to do the planet's hard work find available positions. This is a Sustainability Jobs Board for finding and posting green jobs for free anywhere in the world.

Web Development

Databox for Dynamic Dashboards - I simply cannot say enough about Databox. It is presently my favorite tool to use for creating dynamic dashboard widgets and databoards from any sort of database or data platform. My favorite use is the ability to create gorgeous customized datawalls and dashboards from BigQuery and Airtable. Much more on this coming soon.

JBird's Nest - I've been compiling cool tools for doing just about everything you can imagine on the web for quite some time. This newsletter inspired me to resurrect this Web Tools Directory I built a couple of years ago, where you can find a LOT of tools for doing just about anything online.

Thank you for taking a moment out of your day to absorb another chunk of this story. I fully realize that some of this so far is quite deep and for some it may seem other-worldly but I assure you that we are going from the macro to the micro and if some of this seems confusing to you, keep following. It will begin to all make perfect sense as we progress through the weeks. As promised, here is a little sneak peek at what we will be discussing next week.

I appreciate your subscribing to the Sustainable Communities newsletter and I encourage dropping a comment below and introduce yourself. Whether you work in Sustainability or any the Geospatial professions, please reach out and connect with me personally. I would love to learn more about what you do and how we might work together to create something useful for your community.