Burning Man as Disaster Relief Case Study
In 2009 I received a scholarship from the Black Rock Foundation to use Burning Man as a case study for disaster relief. I went to observe systems of power generation, trash and recycling handling, morale boosting, first aid, policing, and the layout of the space with its important components like signage. I asked myself how would a city in a post disaster context organize itself and reinvent itself to be habitatable for it's mentally and physically affected populations?
Burning man is not an low waste sustainable event in the environmentally friendly sense, but it does teach people, many of whom have not camped before, what it does take to be prepared. It has also provided a touch of training in surviving, at least in the short term, a challenging environment both physically and culturally. It helped me answer some of my questions and provided me with some hope that in a disaster I could help organize neighborhood level relief zones and invite the Burning man prepared to help offer their skills and caches of gear.
These are topics I observed in my 3 years of going - a few subjects discussed below.
- Efficient Design for transportation - access by water trucks, porto-potties, bikes and on foot
- Skilled Leaders - makers, builders, survivialists
- Emotional and Cultural First Aid - moral, places for grounding and safety are vital
- Centralized Communication - radio, signage, central gathering space
- Signage is Critical - being disoriented in space is emotionally jarring
- Giving jobs to people - people want something to do when in a chaotic environment
- Set up of organized first aid, waste, water and hygiene systems is the core
- Portable Architecture - Building portable but with solid structures
Efficient Design of a temporary community - a stacked semi-circle. This design helps arrange people, vehicles and services to not be so far from each other that is taxes energy to get around the temporary city. Streets are designed for service trucks, RV and a few art projects to pass through. The fairly compressed layout is important for efficient use of energy - people don't have to walk across a full circle and back for example. It also minimizes the impact to the land.
Burning Man showed me that preparation is important, but skills are vital. The people that knew how to tie rope, build shelter, know when it was time to get out of the sun - basically the people with skills of awareness and common sense is critical for the survival of the group, (huge caveat here, since it may not be common sense to be out there in the first place. This is not new information, but it elucidates the necessity of training and teaching basic survival skills. Often the people with the skills were overworked due to everyone asking for their help further minimizing the effectiveness of the group the skilled seemed to manage.
Emotional First Aid - Love and a caring sensibility was a tone set at the event. This was met with a more serious "Take Care of Yourself and Drink Water". Mixing the two tones and providing a clear instruction was important to try to establish a culture that would help you, if you helped yourself. For newbies to the event the scene can be overwhelming and a culture shock. This mixed with dehydration, alcohol and drugs adds to the psychological impact, which makes it a good study to mimic the shock incurred after a disaster. I realize it is not the same, but there are similarities. Taking care of your fellow man and not being afraid to share water, critical advice, such as " You need to get out of the sun!" or listen to a stranger process their emotions can be really helpful and connect you to compassion of the situation. I imagine this would help anyone in shock.
Drug Culture is like emotional shock and could provide an eye into the mental instability that is likely to follow a major disaster. Those having a bad trip need special supervision and what I observed either a safe place, such a a fort or tent for them to calm down and minimize the simulation, or they need to be directed to do something simple to take their mind off believing their thoughts and focus on being "helpful". A few of the Rangers at Burning Man had a particular peaceful and compassionate style that was more effective for those in fragile mental states.
Centralized Communications and Signage: During the American Dream themed year- I showed up early enough to see the grounds without signage and observe people trying to navigate, often with changing or an absence of land marks. This created a lot of distress, wasted energy being lost and frustration. Landmarks, signage and meeting points are so important to the human brain that will inevitably try to make sense of a chaotic situation. I believe this is why people carry tall flags and signage at festivals and parties to give a landmark or a touch stone for lost people to have a sense of safety to find their people or camp site. It's almost a natural occurrence but is a nuance that we rely on the city to provide until the city cannot offer that service, people must and will find a way to orient themselves.
Burning man is not an low waste sustainable event in the environmentally friendly sense, but it does teach people, many of whom have not camped before, what it does take to be prepared. It has also provided a touch of training in surviving, at least in the short term, a challenging environment both physically and culturally. It helped me answer some of my questions and provided me with some hope that in a disaster I could help organize neighborhood level relief zones and invite the Burning man prepared to help offer their skills and caches of gear.
These are topics I observed in my 3 years of going - a few subjects discussed below.
- Efficient Design for transportation - access by water trucks, porto-potties, bikes and on foot
- Skilled Leaders - makers, builders, survivialists
- Emotional and Cultural First Aid - moral, places for grounding and safety are vital
- Centralized Communication - radio, signage, central gathering space
- Signage is Critical - being disoriented in space is emotionally jarring
- Giving jobs to people - people want something to do when in a chaotic environment
- Set up of organized first aid, waste, water and hygiene systems is the core
- Portable Architecture - Building portable but with solid structures
Efficient Design of a temporary community - a stacked semi-circle. This design helps arrange people, vehicles and services to not be so far from each other that is taxes energy to get around the temporary city. Streets are designed for service trucks, RV and a few art projects to pass through. The fairly compressed layout is important for efficient use of energy - people don't have to walk across a full circle and back for example. It also minimizes the impact to the land.
Burning Man showed me that preparation is important, but skills are vital. The people that knew how to tie rope, build shelter, know when it was time to get out of the sun - basically the people with skills of awareness and common sense is critical for the survival of the group, (huge caveat here, since it may not be common sense to be out there in the first place. This is not new information, but it elucidates the necessity of training and teaching basic survival skills. Often the people with the skills were overworked due to everyone asking for their help further minimizing the effectiveness of the group the skilled seemed to manage.
Emotional First Aid - Love and a caring sensibility was a tone set at the event. This was met with a more serious "Take Care of Yourself and Drink Water". Mixing the two tones and providing a clear instruction was important to try to establish a culture that would help you, if you helped yourself. For newbies to the event the scene can be overwhelming and a culture shock. This mixed with dehydration, alcohol and drugs adds to the psychological impact, which makes it a good study to mimic the shock incurred after a disaster. I realize it is not the same, but there are similarities. Taking care of your fellow man and not being afraid to share water, critical advice, such as " You need to get out of the sun!" or listen to a stranger process their emotions can be really helpful and connect you to compassion of the situation. I imagine this would help anyone in shock.
Drug Culture is like emotional shock and could provide an eye into the mental instability that is likely to follow a major disaster. Those having a bad trip need special supervision and what I observed either a safe place, such a a fort or tent for them to calm down and minimize the simulation, or they need to be directed to do something simple to take their mind off believing their thoughts and focus on being "helpful". A few of the Rangers at Burning Man had a particular peaceful and compassionate style that was more effective for those in fragile mental states.
Centralized Communications and Signage: During the American Dream themed year- I showed up early enough to see the grounds without signage and observe people trying to navigate, often with changing or an absence of land marks. This created a lot of distress, wasted energy being lost and frustration. Landmarks, signage and meeting points are so important to the human brain that will inevitably try to make sense of a chaotic situation. I believe this is why people carry tall flags and signage at festivals and parties to give a landmark or a touch stone for lost people to have a sense of safety to find their people or camp site. It's almost a natural occurrence but is a nuance that we rely on the city to provide until the city cannot offer that service, people must and will find a way to orient themselves.