The course will explore different public participatory methods offered by landscape architecture, design and other disciplines to explore large scale landscapes that are undergoing transformation due to environmental risk and urban urgencies. The course is related to ongoing research on nature-based solutions in landscapes exposed to geohazards such as flooding, mudslides and avalanches. The course provides an overview of current interdisciplinary ways of working with communities that needs to imagine the future of their territories and transformations caused by climate change and critical 21st century issues. The elective investigates the first steps in designing with and for communities living in territories of risk, this means where actions need to be taken to adapt and anticipate future situations.

We will explore:

- Background to community engagement. The role of the designers and role of the communities. Traditional methods need to be changed to make acceptable changes in the landscape.

- Public participation methods for large scale landscapes, modes of doing with locals to anticipate future changes, transformations, acceptance of disappearances and the integration of new artefacts in large landscapes. Proposals of tools to act with locals.

- Tools such as the innovative Systems Oriented Design, (SOD). SOD is a skillbased methodology that has been developed to understand, interact with and design complex systems through Gigamapping. This allows for collection, analysis and interpretation of information, actors and entities across the large data system.

- Field work. In risk landscapes, locals need to anticipate possible transfer of activities over to new settlements. We will learn by working with a community through a common workshop