Creating a Dependence Map

Over this module, you’ve built a set of tools: a Pressure Scan, a Climate Exposure Map, a Waste Stream Audit, a Purpose Scan, a Systems Map, an Economic Dependence Check and a Skills Gap Check. Each one looked at dependence from a different angle. In this lesson, we bring them together into a single picture: your Dependence Map.

A Dependence Map shows, on one page, what your community relies on, who or what it relies on, how exposed that makes you, and where there is an opportunity to build something of your own. It’s one of the most useful documents you will produce in this course, because it turns a general feeling of vulnerability into a clear, specific list that people can act on.

What a Dependence Map is

A Dependence Map is a structured list of everything your community depends on that sits outside its control, with a simple assessment of how risky and how costly each dependence is, and what could reduce it.

It answers five questions.

What do we rely on?

Who or what do we rely on for it?

How exposed are we if it fails or becomes more expensive?

How much value leaves our community because of it?

What do we already have that could replace or reduce it?

The last question is what makes this a tool for opportunity rather than worry. Every dependence on your map is a possible enterprise.

Healthy and unhealthy dependence

Before we begin, a reminder. Not all dependence is bad. No community can or should produce everything it needs. Trade, partnership and shared systems are strengths. The goal is not isolation.

What we’re looking for is dependence without choice: one supplier, one route, one employer, one funder or one decision-maker, with no easy alternative. The more concentrated and the less controllable it is, the more it matters.

Step 1: Choose your boundary

Use the same boundary you chose for your Abundance Inventory in Chapter 1, such as a town, a Nation, a region or an organization. Consistency makes it easier to link the two.

Step 2: List your dependencies in ten areas

Work through ten areas of community life. For each one, list the main things your community relies on from outside.

Food. Where does most of your food come from? How much is grown or made locally?

Energy. Where do your electricity, heating and transport fuels come from? How many routes or suppliers are there?

Water. What are your sources, and who controls them and the infrastructure?

Materials and goods. What do you import for building, repair and daily life? What can’t you make or fix locally?

Waste. Where does your waste go, and who handles it? What do you pay to send it away?

Transport and access. What are your connections to the wider world: roads, ferries, flights, rail, broadband? What happens if one fails?

Money and funding. What are your main sources of income, grants and investment? How predictable are they, and who decides?

Jobs and industry. Which employers or industries does your economy rest on, and who owns them?

Skills and services. Which skills, professionals and services do you bring in from elsewhere?

Decisions and governance. Which decisions about your land, resources and future are made outside your community?

Aim for three to five entries per area. Don’t worry about perfect accuracy. A rough map is far more useful than none.

Step 3: Describe each dependence

For each entry, write a short description with five parts.

What it is. A clear name, such as “imported fresh food” or “single ferry route”.

Where it comes from. The supplier, source, route or decision-maker.

How concentrated it is. One source, a few or many?

How far it travels. Local, regional, national or global?

Who controls it. You, a partner or someone else?

Step 4: Assess the exposure

Now score each dependence on three simple measures, from 1 (low) to 5 (high).

Likelihood. How likely is it to be disrupted or become much more expensive in the next five to ten years? Think about the CRISIS pressures: climate events, price shocks, system changes, closures.

Impact. If it failed, how serious would the effect be on safety, health, income or daily life?

Control. How little control does your community have? A score of 5 means almost none.

Multiply the three scores together to get an exposure score between 1 and 125. The higher the number, the more important the dependence. This is not a precise science. It’s a way to compare items and have a useful conversation.

Step 5: Estimate where value leaves

For each dependence, estimate how much money leaves your community each year because of it. Include purchases, fees, disposal costs and profits that go elsewhere.

You may not have exact numbers, and that’s fine. A rough order of magnitude, such as “thousands”, “hundreds of thousands” or “millions”, is enough. Where you don’t know, write the name of someone who might, such as the finance manager, the council, a business owner or a Nation economic development officer.

This step often produces surprises. Many communities discover that the largest sums leaving are in places nobody has examined, such as energy, food, waste disposal or outside contracting.

Step 6: Link to CRISIS

Next to each dependence, write which of the six CRISIS pressures makes it riskier. Many will connect to more than one.

A single ferry connection links to Climate Crisis, Systems Failure and Industry and Insecurity. Imported food links to Climate Crisis, Resource and Waste and Industry and Insecurity. Hiring outside contractors for every project links to the Skills Gap and Systems Failure.

This step helps you see patterns. If the same pressure keeps appearing, it’s probably your community’s most important one.

Step 7: Find the replacement

For each high-scoring dependence, look back at your Abundance Inventory and ask: what do we already have that could reduce this?

Write down the matching asset or opportunity. A waste stream might replace imported soil. A woodlot or wood waste could supply heat. Farmland and growers could supply more local food. A skilled crew could take on repairs and construction. A training program could fill a skills gap. A legacy fund could replace reliance on short-term grants.

If you can’t find a match, mark it as a gap. Perhaps a partnership or a new skill is needed.

Step 8: Prioritise

Now look at your list as a whole and pick the dependences that deserve action first. Look for those that score highly on three things.

High exposure. The dependence is risky and hard to control.

High leakage. A lot of value leaves because of it.

Strong replacement. You already have the assets, skills or partners to do something about it.

The dependences that rank highly on all three are your best candidates for a first project. They are also likely to line up with your lead opportunity from Chapter 1. If they don’t, ask why. Either your lead opportunity needs rethinking, or the map has revealed a stronger one.

A worked example

To show how this works, here is a simple illustration of a coastal community that can only be reached by ferry or air. The figures are invented for the example.

Dependence: imported compost and soil for farms and gardens. Source: trucked and shipped from the mainland. Concentration: two suppliers. Distance: regional. Control: low.

Likelihood: 4, because ferry disruptions and fuel prices make supply uncertain. Impact: 3, because growers can’t easily substitute. Control: 4. Exposure score: 48.

Value leaving: estimated at several hundred thousand dollars a year when product and transport are included. CRISIS links: Climate Crisis, Resource and Waste, Industry and Insecurity.

Replacement: the community already pays to send organic and wood waste away. A local processor could turn that waste into soil, compost and mulch, and sell it back at home. The processor can earn a fee for accepting material and earn further revenue from selling what it makes.

This one entry shows the full logic of the map: a dependence, an exposure, a leak, a pressure and an answer that already exists in the community.

Common mistakes

Mapping only the obvious. Energy and food come to mind first. Look for less visible dependences, such as skills, decisions and funding.

Treating all dependence as bad. Focus on the concentrated, uncontrollable, costly ones.

Working alone. Different people see different dependences. Invite people from farming, trades, local government, youth, elders and business.

Aiming for precision. Rough estimates are enough. The point is to start a conversation and set priorities.

Stopping at the problem. Always complete Step 7, the replacement, or the map becomes a list of worries.

Forgetting ownership. When you imagine a replacement, ask who would own it. The value only stays home if the community has a real stake.

How the map is used

Your Dependence Map has several uses.

It frames your OPPORTUNITY business case. The Overview and Your Impact sections draw directly on it.

It supports funding conversations. Funders and lenders respond well to a clear, evidence-based picture of need and opportunity.

It guides planning. A map shows where small projects could add up to a more secure community.

It builds engagement. Seeing the dependences laid out helps people understand why change matters, and what they can do about it.

It tracks progress. Return to it each year and see which dependences have eased.