Building Resilient Communities Through Conservation

Pandemics, climate change, natural disasters, inequity, the perils of urbanization: cities worldwide are working to build resilience against a steady stream of existential threats. Resilience planning may include protecting historic places, but it typically overlooks the role of heritage conservation in helping communities prepare for, and recover from, the hazards they face. How does telling a community’s full story make it more resilient? Who should be at the table to make sure resilience plans include places that define and unite neighborhoods? Recent graduate Kelsey Kaline Neighbors shares these and other insights from her master’s thesis, Mobilizing Heritage Conservation as a Tool for Urban Resilience.