Bradley Dean, Coastal Scientist, Michael Baker International
Communicating about flood risk and hazard mitigation is challenging and requires storytelling. Our brains are wired to discount facts and the future. During this session, Coastal Scientist Bradley Dean CFM, CE, will explore three use cases for story maps focusing on best practices for communicating flood risk and mitigation initiatives:
• Annapolis, Maryland needed a platform where residents and stakeholders could visualize and interpret the city’s flood mitigation efforts.
• FEMA’s Cooperating Technical Partners’ Recognition Program wanted to showcase award recipients, San Antonio River Authority and Illinois State Water Survey, for their outstanding efforts in a unique way.
• FEMA’s Risk MAP Program needed to increase awareness of non-regulatory flood risk products and their associated benefits for a broader audience.
The solution was to develop story maps which utilize maps, narrative text, and multimedia content to increase accessibility and engage their target audiences. The applications are designed to be attractive and usable by anyone, which makes them great for education and outreach, either to the general public or to a specific audience.
Story maps are an excellent resource to increase local awareness of current and future flood risk and interpret, prioritize, integrate, and implement solutions that reduce risk to enhance community resilience.
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Presentation Outline
• Introduction to Behavioral Science
• Value of storytelling
• What is a story map
• Case Studies
• Annapolis, Maryland
• FEMA Flood Risk Products
• Lycoming County, Pennsylvania
• Story map best practices
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The public in the United States doesn't speak with a
single voice. They have very different perspectives […]
If you want to engage the public effectively, you've
got to start where they are—not where you are.
Public Perspectives
— Anthony Leiserowitz,
Director of the Yale Project on
Climate Change Communication
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Cognitive Biases
Courtesy of Ogilvy Public
Relations and
• Our brains are complicated!
• Understanding how our brains receive and
process information helps understand
people’s motivations and how they may
think about and receive information
regarding their risks
• Awareness of the cognitive biases and
heuristics that will affect how each
community member thinks about risk is
critical to effectiveness.
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Cognitive Bias - The Ikea Effect
http://ideasnet.blogspot.com/2015/05/day-9-other-side-of-ikea-effect.html
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Science of Stories
Character-driven stories consistently cause the synthesis of OXYTOCIN, the chemical produced
when we are trusted or shown a kindness, and it motivates cooperation with others.
Harvard Business Review 2014
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The Need for Storytellers
• To emotionally feel what other human beings
feel that we haven't, in order to live another's
pain, joy, heartache, love, etc. (empathy)
• To see ourselves in a story: our profession, our
position in life
• To entertain
• To entice, provoke, intellectually stimulate
• To inspire
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Hurricane Sandy Facts
• Death toll of 245
• Made landfall on October 29, 2012 in Atlantic City, NJ
• Caused close to $62 billion in damage in the United States
• At the height of the storm, over 7.5 million people were without power.
• Scientists calculated that coastal wetlands prevented as much as $625
million in property damage.
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Value of Storytelling
Better than fact sharing!
There are powerful stories to tell
about how communities can drive
mitigation action.
Stories are…
More memorable More powerful More persuasive More effective
16. • Esri Story Maps are web applications
that let authors combine maps with
narrative text, images, and
multimedia, including video.
• Designed to be attractive and usable
by anyone, which makes them a
powerful communication tool for
education and outreach.
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What is a Story Map?
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Story Map Triple Threat
• Stories put people in a receptive frame of mind.
• People respond to visual stimulation.
• Maps communicate in a way that is familiar and
universally appealing.
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Questions to Answer
• What is the purpose of the story map? (Purpose)
• Who are we trying to influence? (Who)
• What do we want them to DO as a result of this story map? (Call to Action)
• What will help people to KNOW this? (Know)
• What will help people FEEL this? (Feel)
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Development Process
• Purpose: Develop a product to enhance outreach and engagement regarding
cultural resources and flood risk.
• Who: Residents, local officials, local stakeholders, city staff, resilience community
• Call to Action: Support mitigation actions and political decisions which encourage
proactive hazard mitigation planning. Provide input into decision making. Get
involved.
• Know: Approachable language, relevant references, events calendar, etc.
• Feel: Interactive map tour, compelling flooding imagery, crowdsourcing, google
surveys, etc.
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Development Process
Purpose:
• Communicate a general awareness of the data and information available
through FEMA’s Flood Risk Products
• Convey flood risk products datasets can be a valuable tool for visualizing and
understanding a community’s flood risk and for informing decisions
Who: Community officials & staff, local floodplain administrators, public works, and
all audiences.
Call to Action:
• Interact with the subsequent Lycoming County, PA case study.
• Know where and how to access their community’s Flood Risk Products.
Know: Approachable language, relevant references, custom infographics, etc.
Feel: Compelling imagery, communicating a success story, relatable storylines
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Create a Connection
No matter the subject, your goal is not simply to educate and inform.
Your goal is to establish a commonality, to create a connection, and to
compel your audience to act.
http://www.jaxxsunconsulting.com/daari-part-2-action/
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Communication is a Pathway to Influence
Influence: the power or capacity of causing an
effect in indirect or intangible ways
-Merriam Webster-
https://azmenatwork.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/person-of-influence/
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Become an Influencer
As a communicator, your goal is not to strive for
excellence, but rather to strive for influence.
At the very heart of our program is the commitment to building relationships, not “outputs.”
Our approach puts the community leader and the residents they care about at the center of how we approach each unique project.
This is a very big shift for FEMA, whose model has been focused on outreach and engagement around “the process” – rather than focusing on the best relationship and partnership that will create lasting commitment, understanding, and movement.
In our experience, though, there is a gap between identifying action and actually advancing action. Communities either don’t fully grasp or won’t acknowledge their risk, don’t feel like they have the capacity to do something about it, or they simply do not know how to navigate the system.
This isn’t just our experience, though. The basics of human behavior really shows us that information alone does not change how concerned people are about their risk. Humans, in our lizard brains, do not make rational choices in line with their best interests. There are some key behavioral economics principles that govern why we act, and hint at why taking action to reduce risk is so hard.
People believe that if a major flood hasn’t happened recently, it won’t happen in the future. They judge future risk based on past experience – and on how things are now. They are really, really convinced that hazards are more likely to strike others – and that those others will do something about it. People also just default to doing nothing, and they care about what they want immediately instead of what is good for them in the long term.
The more we are involved in creating something (like putting together a piece of Ikea furniture) the more we value it.
We love it more because we made it.
Data does not equal knowledge does not equal action.
Human beings learn and relate to things emotionally, with storytelling, and so on. Keeping this in mind helps to remember that collaboration, showing/not telling, and leading with "why we should care", and then reinforced by the data/facts has been shown to help bridge gaps in understanding.
Advancing resilience requires us to overcome our lizard brains to define and personalize risk, to help people understand the consequences of risk, demonstrate what resilience looks like, identify and reduce barriers, promote self-efficacy, and sell success and normalize resilience as the default desired state.
Our challenge is to move non-technical decision-makers from awareness to action by providing a catalyst to make risk more relevant and inspire them to seek answers about how to mitigate their communities’ flood risks.