The West Coast of Canada is host to thousands of US citizen visitors each year. Unfortunately, it could also be the home to a devastating suite of natural hazards. Now, thanks to the work of students at Indiana University Bloomington the US State Department has a new source of disaster response information and analysis to draw upon.
As part of IU’s contribution to the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomacy Lab program, 15 IU Bloomington students spent their fall semester producing a report on policy challenges and opportunities related to natural disasters for the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, British Columbia. The students capped the project with a December 8 briefing to several of the lead members of the consular team, including U.S. Consul General James DeHart.
Diplomacy Lab helps the State Department “course-source” research and innovation related to global policy challenges from the nation’s top universities. Michael Hamburger, a professor in the IU Bloomington’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, helped bring the program to IU Bloomington after spending the 2015-16 academic year as a Jefferson Science Fellow at the State Department. IUB’s Diplomacy Lab program is managed by the IU Office of the Vice President for International Affairs.
Under the program, IU and other universities “bid” on topics posted by the State Department, which selects the best proposals and assigns students as consultants to their foreign embassies. In this case, the client was the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, British Columbia, which is responsible for the health and safety of the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who live in, work in or travel to western Canada, including British Columbia and the Yukon.
IU Bloomington was awarded the Canada natural disaster course in the spring of 2023. This is the sixth time Hamburger has taught his “Environmental and Energy Diplomacy” class to a mixed group of upper-level undergraduates and graduate students on the IUB campus.
“In contrast to some other countries, Canada has well-developed scientific and government planning for natural disasters, including earthquake and tsunami warning systems, and elaborate flood control systems in many parts of the country,” Hamburger said. “How well these systems will function under the stresses of a major natural disaster, however, has not yet been fully tested. The recent wave of wildfires throughout Canada has underscored to State Department staff the urgency of preparing for and responding to natural disasters.”
He added that that natural hazards are a critical issue for Canada’s Vancouver consulate, which is vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis on the western coast; and flooding, wildfires and landslides in the nation’s rugged interior. U.S. policymakers in the country face difficult decisions about how best to prepare for, respond to and communicate with the public about natural disasters.
Through the course, the IUB students produced an 85-page report including analysis and of policy recommendations on natural disaster response and preparedness based upon their synthesis of relevant data from the scientific, technical and societal perspective. The report also highlighted opportunities for U.S. and Canadian cooperation in scientific and technical development as well as areas of potential improvement in the Consulate’s response to natural disasters.
Students and instructors kept in touch with Consular staff through email and video conversations throughout the semester. After completing the report, Joseph Bergen, the Chief of American Citizen Services, arranged for students to brief DeHart and other senior officials on their findings, along with several consular team members at other sites across Canada. The briefing took place via videoconference on December 8.
The mixed group of graduate students and undergraduates in the Diplomacy Lab class came from the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, the Department of Geography, and the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
Additional elements of the report included:
- A database of Geographic Information Systems maps, as well as a digital record of the various resources and infrastructure that might be affected by natural disasters.
- An individualized breakdown of potential natural disaster impacts in the categories of earthquakes and tsunamis, flooding, wildfires, and climate change.
- A series of “StoryMap” graphic representations of the team’s findings
- Recommended updates to the embassy’s website and its “Smart Traveler” app.
“The embassy team was genuinely impressed by our team’s work and interested in following up on the recommendations,” Hamburger said. “The Diplomacy Lab program offers IU students a remarkable opportunity — the opportunity to take their academic training and focus it on the application to real-world issues that could affect thousands of Americans working and traveling abroad.”
IU Diplomacy Lab program is a part of the IU Office of the Vice President for International Affairs. Faculty interested in submitting a bid are invited to connect with our team in Bloomington at diplolab@iu.edu and in Indianapolis at lbozeman@iupui.edu.
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