This interview series features the interviewer's conversations with nationwide policy-makers and community stakeholders on flood adaptation and historic urban form change. In this series, we may hear opinions from leading figures in heritage resilience research and policy-making, as well as explore on-the-ground voices from local communities. The interviewer identified and invited interviewees under the focus groups of “Urban Planners,“ “Preservation Policy-Makers,” “Community Stakeholders,” and “Architects & Contractors”; to connect practitioners of different fields to the discourse of heritage resilience, a general set of questions are prepared for each focus group, which are further tailored for each interviewee based on the interviewer’s knowledge of their background and expertise.
Please browse this post, or use the link below to view the general question lists prepared by the interviewer for each focus group.
Interview Questions for Urban Planners
1 Background
What are the key goals and motives of your organization’s recent planning efforts on flood resilience? Have you included, or do you plan to include waterfront historic resources within your purview?
2 Policy-Making Awareness & Inter-Agency Collaboration
How do you evaluate your organization’s progress in flood resilience policy-making, as compared to other cities or Federal agencies?
Which governmental or non-governmental agencies do you work with in your policy-making process?
3 How Policies Are Made within the Agency
What are the professional backgrounds of policy-makers in your agency (e.g. architects, planners, preservationists, technical experts, climate scientists)? Are third-party vendors or consultants involved in your policy-making?
4 How Publics Are Reached by the Agency
Have you executed public engagement programs to communicate your organization’s policy-making effort to community stakeholders and the public? If so, when and where are these programs held? What’s the target audience?
5 Future Streetscape
With the rapid emergence of flood adaptation projects in different scales across the country, how do you imagine New York City (or your city)’s future waterfront streetscape? How do you image New York City (or your city)’s future historic streetscape?
6 Stewardship of Historic Built Environment
Which governmental agencies or non-governmental organizations should take the responsibility to research, support, and oversee the flood adaptation of New York City (or your city)’s historic built environment?
7 Policy Tools & Policy Reform Opportunities
In your point of view, which policy tool is most effective in stewarding historic or existing built environment towards flood resilience? How should existing policy tools be revised and updated to better facilitate flood adaptation?
8 Identifying Challenges
From your perspective, what’s the biggest challenge in adapting New York City (or your city)’s historic/existing built environment towards flood resilience?
9 Next Steps & Future Policy Change
What’s your organization’s current priority and next steps in flood resilience policy-making? How would you envision key policy changes in building code, flood zoning or preservation standards within the near future?
Interview Questions for Preservation Policy-Makers
1 Organization Background
What are your organization’s key missions? Have you incorporated, or do you plan to incorporate the flood resilience of historic built environment into your visions?
2 Local Heritage Background
What impacts did recent hurricanes or flooding events cause to local built heritage? What types of heritage are threatened by flood risk, and where are they located? What are the major needs and claims from local heritage sites after flood events? How many of them have been adapted for flood resilience?
3 How the Organization Works & Inter-Organization Collaboration
How is flood resilience planning and management situated in your organization? What kinds of work (e.g. grant distribution, design review, professional education, preservation planning/research, guideline production and policy-making) do you carry out to promote flood resilience? Which governmental or non-governmental organizations do you work with in your projects?
4 Policy-Making Awareness
How do you evaluate your organization’s progress in flood resilience policy-making, as compared to other cities or Federal agencies?
5 How the Public & Professionals Are Reached by the Organization
Have you conducted public or professional engagement programs (workshops, exhibitions, lectures, conferences, etc.) to communicate your organization’s policies or research outcomes? If so, when and where are these programs held? What’s the target audience?
6 Design Strategies & Future Streetscape
Given the flood adaptation projects that you’ve launched, reviewed or supervised, what conflicts have you observed between flood adaptation interventions and the formal, material and experiential qualities of historic properties? What successful retrofitting design strategies have you discovered? How do you imagine New York City (or your city)’s future waterfront historic streetscape?
7 Stewardship of Historic Built Environment
Which governmental agencies or non-governmental organizations should take the responsibility to research, support, and oversee the flood adaptation of New York City (or your city)’s historic built environment?
8 Key Policy Tools & Policy Reform Opportunities
In your point of view, which policy or advocacy tool is most effective in stewarding historic or existing built environment towards flood resilience? How should nationwide/local preservation policy be revised and updated to better facilitate flood adaptation?
9 Identifying Challenges
From your perspective, what’s the biggest challenge in adapting New York City (or your city)’s historic/existing built environment towards flood resilience?
10 Next Steps & Future Policy Change
What’s your organization’s current priority and next steps in flood resilience policy-making or heritage retrofitting? What key changes at the intersection of flood adaptation and historic preservation would you like to imagine within the near future?
Interview Questions for Community Stakeholders
1 Background
Has your property been impacted or threatened by recent flooding events? What damage did the flood(s) cause? Is your property designated or landmarked?
2 Challenges in Recovery and Adaptation
Has your property been repaired or adapted? What’s the funding structure of your recovery/adaptation project? What physical interventions have been made? What challenges have you faced in terms of funding, design/technical assistance, and coping with preservation and flood regulations?
Did the recovery/adaptation project bring a significant impact on the operation and income of your property (for museums and commercial properties only)?
3 Resource Awareness & Key Policy Tools
Are you aware of existing funding opportunities, policy resources and design guidelines for flood adaptation? How hard is it to find such information?
What preservation and flood adaptation policy tools have you used during recovery/adaptation? (e.g. tax credit, federal grant, retrofitting design guidelines, etc.)
4 Knowledge Exchange & Public Engagement Effectiveness
Are you aware of the city’s recent floodproofing efforts in your neighborhood (e.g. neighborhood flood masterplan/placement of temporary flood shields)? Are you aware of any public outreach process associated with these efforts?
Have you heard of any other flood adaptation projects on historic buildings or neighborhoods?
5 Stewardship of Historic Built Environment
Which governmental or non-governmental agencies should take the lead to support flood recovery or adaptation of historic properties?
6 Material, Form, and Streetscape Change
How will your historic property change after flood repair/adaptation? Will the historic significance of your property be impacted or reshaped?
How do you imagine New York City (or your city)’s future waterfront historic streetscape?
7 Next Steps
In your eyes, what’s the most urgent action that should be taken to mitigate flood risk and impact on your neighborhood or property?
Interview Questions for Architects & Contractors
1 Demand for Flood Adaptation
How many projects or commissions are you able to get each year? Among them, how many are flood adaptation (or building elevation) projects? How have flood adaptation demands evolved in recent years?
Among the flood adaptation projects you’ve carried out, how many are for residential homes, versus buildings of commercial or community use?
2 Policy-Making Awareness and Participation
Are you aware of the local flood regulations or design guidelines that regulate the flood adaptation of historic properties? Are you involved in the making of these policies?
3 Design Considerations and Future Streetscape Change
What are the major design considerations (or key architectural elements) that you typically pay attention to when working on historic properties? How do you ensure a consistent and inviting streetscape expression for adapted or elevated buildings?
Besides building-level interventions, are there other design strategies (e.g. rain gardens, landscape design, public space design and permeable surfaces) that can be carried out to more holistically transform historic urban environment towards flood resilience?
With more and more buildings adapted or elevated for flood resilience, how would you imagine future historic urban form change?
4 Financial Incentives
How are local flood adaptation projects funded? Among the flood adaptation projects that you’ve worked on, how many are able to secure external funding? How important are funding, incentive and grant opportunities (from FEMA, National Park Service, etc.) to historic property owners?
5 Identifying Key Institutional Actors
Which governmental or non-governmental organizations do you work with in your projects?
6 Identifying Challenges
Are there any technical challenges that you’ve encountered when working on flood adaptation projects for historic properties (e.g. narrow lots, attached construction, or the structural elevation of masonry structures)?
From your perspective, what’s the biggest challenge in adapting New York City (or your city)’s historic/existing built environment towards flood resilience?
7 Next Steps
What changes in flood regulations and preservation standards would you like to see in the near future, to make flood adaptation projects on historic properties more common and affordable?
*The header graphic is designed using assets from freepik.com.
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