Unquestionably, the reality of climate change is on the world’s doorstep. More severe storm events, widespread drought, and higher-than-average temperatures are just some of the impacts we are currently experiencing. As designers and engineers, it must be in our DNA to design using principles of resiliency, which can be defined as “the capacity of a system to deal with change and continue to develop.”1 It is also a responsibility to ensure that these solutions are equitable.
What is an Equitable Project?
Climate change has the largest burden on communities that are the most vulnerable, including physical, social, and economic risk factors. Otak believes in taking a truly integrated approach to our design and sees the value in aligning with the unique needs of all stakeholders to create memorable places for future generations.
Otak is also invested in the concept, as climate and community activist Majora Carter says, that “No one should have to leave their community to live in a better one.”
That investment includes identifying and learning from community experts, whose lived experiences can inform our design. Engaged communities, where everyone feels safe, valued, and empowered, are vital to creating a thriving society. Our internal investments in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion bolster our staff with skills that can carry over to our project work.
What Does Equitable Design Mean at Otak?
From work with the National Park Service (NPS) where LEED silver is standard in their design, to the Portland Building where Minority and Women-Owned Business (MWBE) utilization exceeds expectation, our projects take shape with these values in mind in a variety of ways.
Particularly within the AEC industry, as the field becomes more gender-balanced and places an emphasis on sustainable elements such as daylighting, energy performance, and water use, the results quickly become tangible.
“Maintaining accessibility through universal design is a must for equitable experiences in project development… Implementing these strategies can be easy from the start, because we share common values with a client and can work towards a common goal.”
Aryn Phillips, architecture team designer
Equitable design is an essential component of environmental justice. For too long, sustainability and the design that accompanies it have placed heavy burdens on our most vulnerable populations. Poor communities, people of color, the disabled community, the elderly, and other populations have been harmed by a lack of progress in sustainability. Worse yet, our infrastructure often reflects past racist, classist, and ableist policy decisions. A look at current environmental and health crises in Mississippi, Detroit, and New York City exhibit the need to think about the intersections of design, policy, and justice.
History tells us that these communities were made vulnerable through intentional and targeted policies that benefited a few and burdened many. For example, the current crisis in Jackson, MS can be traced to white resistance to school integration in the 1970s. The choice to open segregated academies and the flight to outlying areas resulted in segregated communities, shrank the tax base, and crippled any investment in crumbling infrastructure.
Equitable design that is intentionally focused on outcomes for these and other vulnerable populations reflects an understanding of justice and how we can design and deliver projects that are transformative by design. Environmental justice necessarily centers communities and the expertise that resides there.
It is our job to translate that expertise into design that centers the needs of vulnerable populations.
As our industry becomes more dynamic and multi-faceted, the need has never been greater for those who shape the built environment to have unique perspectives and approaches to their work. It’s imperative for firms to not only recruit talent from a variety of backgrounds, but also to honor those who are recognized for their visionary qualities in the field.
This is the case for Millicent Williams, our Regional Director for our Oregon and Southwest Washington Public Sector practice, who we are proud to say has been recognized as a DJC Oregon’s Woman of Vision award for 2022.
The Meaning Behind the Honor
The accolade spurns multiple thoughts and feelings for Millicent, both tangible and intangible. What stuck out to her from the outset was the nature of the win—being recognized for inspiring others in the field. She says this comes with a sense of extreme legitimacy, “The things I say and do give women, especially women of color the belief they can work comfortably in and offer leadership in a largely male-dominated industry.”
There are real-world applications for this award as well. To her, it gives a relatable face to the work we do and reinforces that construction is not a man’s job, that infrastructure work in particular is not less sophisticated, and that a non-traditional background isn’t a deterrent to leadership in the field. In fact, she credits her traditional business education as her greatest asset, and knows she can make an impact with her perspective and existing knowledge about “the business of being in business.”
Learning the Ropes
When asked about formative ideas that helped guide her toward this achievement, she pointed directly to a textbook that she used while an undergrad at Florida A&M University’s School of Business and Industry called The Ropes to Skip and The Ropes to Know: a definitive work detailing what Millicent now calls her specialty—organizational systems and development. It instilled in her early on that successful enterprise is about people and navigating both the social and cultural aspects that go into getting any job done. It inspired her to get out of her own way, embrace assertiveness, work hard every day, be teachable, and uplift others in order to achieve desired outcomes. This is especially true for transportation and infrastructure, which she saw as a way to use her skills to influence the built environment in ways she previously thought had been impossible.
Things started to click as she got further and went higher in her career, “When I began to see cities function well as a result of my efforts, I got to then see the direct impact I could have on the industry. You can, in fact, do something about it if you see something that isn’t right, and people don’t always think they have that power.”
Contending with Perceptions and Realities
To Millicent, it’s clear as day that this industry is male-dominated, and even clearer that few people of color are able to achieve the same things with the resources they have access to. However, she credits her tenacious work-ethic and awareness of her transferable skills for elevating her to where she is today, “I was the type of person that shows up every day, that puts their head down and works, and most importantly generate quality results because of that work. That gave me access to opportunities.”
“People want to see themselves in the people they look up to, and this platform creates energy that allows people in the industry to see that”
Millicent Williams
In practice, she also rejects the idea that transportation and infrastructure is as simple as a bus arriving on time. She explains, “The finance and engineering departments for transit agencies are just as crucial to a bus being on schedule as the driver. I’m not often out in the field on projects, but my understanding of the whole system and how each piece works in tandem is what’s important.”
She uses this in-depth understanding to inspire others, to get people to fully see where they are and how they’re contributing, or even when they’re not contributing by being short-sighted, “That in and of itself can be transformative, and can change the way that people see not just infrastructure but government operations in general.”
Doing Generational Work
Millicent reflects that she has worked in the public sector for the majority of her career and that her roles were often assigned because of how she “showed up,” but notes that true passion for her work formed when she got into infrastructure, which led her to leadership roles within organizations like the Portland Bureau of Transportation. She explains, “I saw an opportunity to make impactful decisions in people’s lives and that infrastructure is generational work, meaning my actions could have an impact 100 years later.”
A prime example of this is her current work with the states of both Oregon and Washington on the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program, the bridge in question being the connection between the two via the I-5 highway.
As the lead facilitator for the most high-profile stakeholders on the project, her job of making sure everyone is on the same page is incredibly gratifying for two reasons. For one, she’s playing a direct role in the upgrade of a hundred-year-old bridge where everything needs to be taken into consideration, both in logistics and in politics. She gets to employ her skill in navigating those two spaces from explaining the technical aspects like budget, to the political intersections between the states and their goals. Second, it’s an opportunity to exude leadership under pressure, and to further her goal of creating generational wealth through infrastructure, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime project that incorporates different disciplines and backgrounds of all types. I get to bring the totality of my skills to bear in delivering the results everyone wants, everyone needs out of the project.”
The Ceremony and the Future
Millicent is greatly looking forward to the award ceremony taking place on October 26th in Portland, where she sees incredible value. To her, it’s a tremendous networking opportunity where new partnerships can be forged, and new thought leaders can emerge. The opportunity to recognize women from numerous other firms who will also be acknowledged will help “open eyes and open doors” to future generations, especially those of color, that they too can make an impact with a nontraditional background that can in fact be a strength and a point of pride. The “vision” aspect of this award is especially important here because it allows people of influence, power, and ability to help everyone see value, “The night itself serves the whole industry because it’s a chance not only to make space, but create a meaningful space where all are respected for their work.”
When asked why she thinks it’s important to highlight and recognize women’s stories, she pointed again to giving people the ability to see, “People want to see themselves in the people they look up to, and this platform creates energy that allows people in the industry to see that contributions can be made by those who don’t look like them in terms of gender.”
She wants to see more women in leadership and empower other women to see that success in this industry is possible. Without that, “It’s hard to see for yourself if you don’t see yourself.”
A Closing Message
Millicent puts two words to other women who are looking to break into the Transportation and Infrastructure industry—“Why not? Just because something isn’t in your background doesn’t mean it can’t be in your foreground, so even if you feel like you don’t tick all the boxes, apply yourself anyway—because why not?”
Otak is lucky to have a visionary like Millicent on our team. We look forward to reporting on more of her achievements, and extend our warmest congratulations to her and the other women being honored with this award. You can view the rest of the honorees courtesy of the DJC Oregon here.
With great success generating interest in natural landscapes have come great challenges in preserving them.
An iconic steward of American history and culture, the National Park Service (NPS) is an organization with deep roots in maintaining our nation’s natural spaces and historical and cultural heritage. We have, among others, the efforts of Stephen T. Mather – the first Director of NPS in 1916 – to thank for building public and political support for national parks. His vision is one of trailblazing and appreciation for sublime natural landscapes. In fact, upon his death, a gold plaque was placed in every national park in the U.S., inscribed with “There will never come an end to the good he has done.” The practice of visitor use management (VUM) now carries on that tradition of doing good with our natural landscapes and historic places.
The Rise of Visitor Use
In the early years of the National Park Service, the challenge for Mather and others was to attract visitors to the national parks to build a constituency and the support needed to sustain them. Early campaigns to promote the national parks included development of grand hotels in crown jewel parks, like the Ahwahnee in Yosemite National Park and Paradise Inn in Mount Rainier National Park. Travel to the national parks by railroad was promoted as a thrilling adventure to explore the west. In the 1950’s, an effort referred to as “Mission 66” focused on building facilities and services to promote visitor use and recreation.
These efforts, coupled with the development of the interstate system, growing environmental awareness in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and increasing leisure time and wealth among Americans resulted in extraordinary growth in visitation to the National Park System. As the NPS celebrated its centennial in 2016, there were more than 300 million recreation visits to the National Park System that year.
Credit: National Park Service, South East Utah Group and Steve Bumgardner
Visitor Use Today: Success Fueling Challenges
In recent years, the trend of rising visitation to national parks has reached unprecedented levels, with several parks recording historic levels of monthly and annual visitation. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the outdoors representing a space for safe recreation, was a key factor in driving current trends and levels of visitation.
The rise in popularity of national parks is, without question, a story of great success. The millions of visitors to the National Park System have opportunities for profound experiences that can positively impact them for a lifetime. Yet, increasing amounts and types of visitor use in our national parks can present challenges too. For example, during busy periods in some parks, lines of traffic may form at park entrances, visitors may have difficulty finding parking, and crowding may occur in visitor centers, on trails, and at attractions.
We work with our clients to help them address these opportunities and challenges through the practice of visitor use management. In Mathers’ spirit, we seek to understand how people interact with a park’s significant resources in a meaningful way to develop a deeper appreciation of and sense of stewardship for America’s natural, historical, and cultural heritage.
In this piece, we take a deep dive into the practice of visitor use management and explain how it provides a framework for our work with our clients.
What Does Visitor Use Management Mean?
Visitor use management is the proactive and adaptive practice of identifying strategies and actions to accommodate visitor use while protecting park resources as well as the quality and character of visitor experiences.
Not only is visitor use management relevant to our work, it’s also relevant to anyone who may visit a national park or related protected area. It’s the art of articulating desired conditions for park resources and visitors’ experiences and evaluating on-the-ground practices to learn and adapt over time.
A Dual-Mission Land Use Mandate
Visitor use management is a balancing act. Professionals in this sphere need to be mindful of their goals — providing opportunities for people to enjoy these sites and understanding how that affects park resources, park operations, and the experiences of other visitors. Effective visitor use management incorporates environmental ethics and education, ultimately encouraging visitors to become stewards of national parks and everything they represent.
All things considered, the goal is ultimately to strike a proper balance between the opportunities and challenges presented by national parks. The visitor use management framework is designed to provide a systematic basis for helping address these challenges.
Why Use A Visitor Use Management Framework?
Developed by the Interagency Visitor Use Management Council (IVUMC), the IVUMC Framework provides a systematic, transparent, and legally defensible method for putting visitor use management principles into practice.
The framework has deep historical roots in how visitor use of national parks, national forests and similar public land recreation areas have been monitored and adaptively managed. The framework represents the latest iteration of a long-standing commitment to indicator-based, adaptive visitor use management.
Elements of a Visitor Use Management Framework
Together, the elements of the visitor use management framework are grounded in thinking about and developing statements of desired conditions while establishing indicators that can be monitored in the process of meeting those conditions.
The visitor use management framework provides a guide for navigating the process of defining those elements and there are some key concepts incorporated into the framework:
Establishing Desired Conditions
Desired conditions represent an important part of the foundation for addressing visitor use management in parks. Desired conditions are narrative statements that describe the ideal quality, character, and conditions of park resources to be protected while considering visitor experiences that enhance public use and enjoyment.
It is the responsibility and privilege of the National Park Service to specify desired conditions for national park resources and visitor experiences.
Identifying Indicators
Indicators are measurable proxies for desired conditions that can be monitored to track changes in park resources and visitors’ experiences associated with recreation use. For example, the number of encounters with other groups per hour while hiking is an indicator related to the quality and character of visitors’ experiences.
Good indicators are those that can be easily and reliably measured, are related to and representative of desired conditions, and are responsive to visitor use management actions. In cases where managing use according to numeric user capacities is needed, indicators must also be directly related to the amounts and types of recreation use.
Types of Indicators
Social indicators, such as hiking encounters, the number of people at one time at boat ramps, and similar, tend to be directly related to changes in the types and amounts of recreation use and provide a reliable basis for managing recreation use according to numeric user capacities, where necessary.
In contrast, natural resource-related indicators generally do not have direct and reliably quantifiable relationships to recreation use levels except in extreme low use situations (e.g., trail-less/cross country zones, foot trails with less than 50 to 250 hikers per year). Nonetheless, resource-related indicators should be monitored, and adaptive resource management actions should be taken to protect park resources from impacts.
Managing the characteristics of visitor use (e.g., to concentrate use on established trail treads, road surfaces, and other established recreation resources and facilities, to promote low-impact use behaviors and patterns, etc.) is the most effective method for limiting or reducing recreation use impacts to natural resource-related indicators.
Setting Thresholds and Triggers
Thresholds in visitor use management are the minimally acceptable conditions of indicators to maintain desired conditions. Thresholds should be precise, time-bounded, and outcomes of recreation use rather than types or amounts of recreation use themselves.
Like thresholds, triggers are quantifiable conditions of indicators; they represent points at which adaptive management actions are needed to ensure the conditions of indicators do not cross thresholds. In other words, triggers are designed to support proactive visitor use management to protect park resources and visitors’ experiences from adverse impact, while allowing for recreation use and public enjoyment.
Estimating Numeric User Capacities
When they are necessary, numeric user capacities are estimated based on quantifiable relationships between the types and amounts of recreation use and the conditions of use-related indicators. The best available data are used to estimate the maximum amount of recreation use that can be accommodated without crossing thresholds for user capacity indicators.
For example, trail counter data could be correlated with observations from encounter patrols to estimate the maximum number of people who can hike in a river corridor without crossing a threshold for the number of encounters hikers have with other groups per hour or day. Numeric user capacities are not always needed or applicable.
Developing Visitor Use Management Strategies
Within the IVUMF, visitor use management strategies and actions are developed to achieve desired conditions.
Visitor use management strategies and actions are generally categorized as indirect techniques designed to achieve desired conditions without directly regulating visitors’ choices and behaviors, or direct techniques that may be required when indirect techniques are not enough.
Indirect techniques aim to influence or modify behavior
Direct techniques regulate behavior
Long-Term Monitoring and Adaptive Management
A systematic monitoring program provides the structure to measure indicators and assess their conditions in relation to triggers and thresholds on a recurring basis. Monitoring results provide the basis to determine if actions are needed to adapt management of recreation use to protect natural, cultural, and historical resources from adverse impacts.
Visitor Use Management Use Cases
While still fairly new in practice (the IVUMC was founded in 2011) applications of the visitor use management framework have quickly become prevalent in the National Park System as well as other public land recreation areas.
Acadia National Park provides unique and important recreation opportunities to regional, national, and international visitors. In 2021, the National Park Service (NPS) reported just over four million recreation visits to the park, marking an increase of over 50% in the past decade. This surge in visitation created a number of visitor use management challenges in the park.
The United States Forest Services is responsible for managing Wild and Scenic Rivers on lands within their jurisdiction. Part of this responsibility includes fulfilling the visitor use management and visitor capacity mandate of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (1968).
Over the years, the Jefferson County Open Space (JCOS) system in Colorado experienced rapid growth in visitation numbers. Various issues were addressed by applying visitor use management principles to develop an access management strategy for popular sites in the JCOS system.
Parking image from Jefferson County Open Space study
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