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Moderator: Neil MacEachern

Metrotown Masterplan: Private Sector Leadership in Climate Resilient Community Development

Presenters: Shane O'Hanlon and Graeme Silvera

The Metrotown Master plan is visionary. The staged renewal and reconstruction of Metrotown Mall over the upcoming decades is an historic opportunity to reimagine a significant part of Burnaby’s downtown using the latest thinking in sustainable buildings,  while increasing resilience to our rapidly changing climate and regenerating local ecosystems. To do this a bespoke Sustainability and Resilience strategy was developed.

This session will be a presentation exploring the three pillars of this strategy (social, environmental and economic) through a lens of resilience, considering future climate projections and their associated impacts, and how they’ve been woven throughout the plan. Some strategies can be applied immediately and others are medium-term or long-term, and a number of the strategies will be examined in detail in the presentation.

A Small Business Disaster Resilience Study with Implications for Adaptation Planning across Geographies and Sectors 

Presenter: Jon Philipsborn

Adaptation planning often focuses on sectors such as power, water and transportation; however, other critical community components require attention due to their importance and role in climate resilience and disaster recovery. A small business (SME) disaster resilience study was completed along six corridors in New Orleans. Over 200 SMEs were surveyed on prior extreme weather experience, risk awareness, preparedness and ability to recover. Results were analyzed and recommendations developed at the business, corridor and city level. Education and engagement were key components: communication with SMEs occurred through in-person surveys, informational material and corridor-specific trainings. 

Data on preparedness to current and future hazards is lacking. This presentation will review the SME resilience study’s methodology, results and recommendations. Discussion will include a call for this approach to be applied to SMEs in different cities, as well as tailored for sector specific analysis across other sectors underrepresented in climate adaptation and disaster resilience.

Moderators: Jacinthe Clavet-Gaumont and Isabelle Charron

Presenters: Frédéric Vigeant, Maureen Daschuk and Kurt Kornelsen

Hydropower companies are critical actors for climate change adaptation. Climate change may pose challenges or create opportunities around production, security and planning of resource use. Many Canadian utilities have been proactive with climate change adaptation research. However, there is still a gap between knowledge on the impact of climate change and the identification of adaptation options and their implementation by the industry.

Important hydropower actors will present shortly their initiatives to address climate change. Afterwards, they will participate to a panel discussion to share experiences and insights about the lessons learned, challenges and benefits regarding the inclusion of climate change on the agenda of executives and the barriers to take concrete actions in their companies.
Ouranos, a research partner of many of these companies and an important contributor to climate change adaptation research in Canada, will be moderating the discussion.

Moderator: Michael Stanyer

Blue-Green Connected Roofs: How much better does a “blue-green connected” roof perform to reduce heating/cooling loads and manage storm water?

Presenter: Harvy Takhar

Enhancing biodiversity in an urbanized area can be achieved by implementing green roofs. A healthy green roof can reduce the energy loads for heating and cooling a building as well as reduce stormwater runoff. However, in many climates green roofs underperform mainly due to drought conditions leading to poor vegetation health during the warmer season. Perhaps including a cavity underneath the green roof’s vegetation and growing medium with a wicking system can keep the vegetation healthier and optimize the performance. This system is called a "connected blue-green roof" for the purposes of this study.

The BCIT research team, in conjunction with the City of Vancouver and research partners, have constructed various instrumented roof assemblies that include a conventional, blue, green and connected blue-green roof. The research aims to provide a quantitative measure for each roof type to measure the heating/cooling load and stormwater management, and to observe the health of the vegetation.

Adaptation through Amphibiation

Presenter: Dr. Elizabeth English

Amphibious housing presents intriguing possibilities in the quest for sustainable responses to the impending global climate change crisis. Suitable new housing types are needed for populated regions where sea level rise and heightened storm activity are expected to intensify flooding. Amphibious foundation systems allow a house to remain close to the ground with the appearance of an ordinary house, but to rise with rising floodwater and float on the surface until the flood recedes, at which time it returns to its original position. 

This strategy has great potential to benefit vulnerable populations that currently face the difficult choice between leaving their traditional homelands or living with the devastation that severe flooding can cause in their communities.  Amphibious architecture works in synchrony with nature, allowing water to flow where it will rather than attempting to control it. Thus, amphibious retrofitting is a particularly appropriate, low-cost strategy for indigenous cultures with strong connections to place and respect for natural systems. 

Presenters: Sean Capstick (moderator), Rachel Wyles, Charles Dumaresq and Marc Butler

Mining companies and operators are acting on climate change in response to: regulators requiring information as part of the impact assessment and permitting process; stakeholders demanding environmental, social and governance disclosure; and the impacts that are already affecting operating costs. In response to these issues, the Mining Association of Canada is developing guidance that will provide: a framework on how to characterize the risks to mines from a changing climate; decision-making processes around adaptation measures and allow the implementation of best practices to reduce and manage this risk. This work builds on the International Council on Mining and Metals' recently updated guidance.

This panel presentation will provide an overview of the drivers on mining companies, the available guidance documents, practical actions that operators can take now and case studies from mines that have completed risk assessments and successfully completed the permitting process.

Moderator: Mike Simpson

Working Together Across Boundaries for a Resilient Cascadia: A bi-national biodiversity climate adaptation strategy and a novel tool to support collaborative conservation in a rapidly changing landscape

Presenters: Gregory Kehm

Climate change will have profound impacts on both the human and natural communities of Cascadia, from declining snowpack and increasing wildfire to shifting habitat availability for native species. The scale and pace of these changes will require a historic effort by public and private partners across broad geographic areas to identify and implement actions that will help human and natural communities adapt. Identifying and implementing a shared regional biodiversity climate adaptation strategy for directing independent and collaborative efforts will be critical to ensuring a sustainable and biodiverse Cascadia region into the future.

This talk will provide an introduction to the initiative, a summary of progress including results of four stakeholder workshops and demonstration of a novel web-based spatial tool supporting dynamic collaborative conservation.

BC and US State Transboundary Collaboration

Presenter: Dennis Paradine

Dennis Paradine will present on British Columbia’s participation in the Pacific Coast Collaborative (PCC), an agreement signed in June 2008 between the Premier of British Columbia and the Governors of Washington, California, and Oregon. The priorities of the PCC include building a sustainable regional economy, clean energy, innovation, emergency management, and regional transportation. The collaborative approach of the PCC was exemplified by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between British Columbia, Washington and California in December 2018 on Pacific Coast Temperate Forests. There is a pledge to share information and work jointly to improve forest resilience and better understand how forests are responding to climate change. Additionally, Dennis will highlight transboundary collaboration initiatives on climate adaptation, the development of climate change tools and data, and the sharing of climate change information, including transboundary science needs.

Moderator: Jim Vanderwal

Inuit Adaptation: A Legacy of Engaging with Climate Change

Presenter: Kukik Baker

This session will outline the approach being taken in Arviat, NU by a small community research/action group to address issues of climate impacts on food security, well-being, cultural sustainability, engagement and youth resilience. The focus is on 3 foundational principles around climate issues: the foundation of cultural beliefs; youth engagement; community accountability; a comprehensive overview of the approach; and climate change inequities experienced by Inuit communities and how one community is using cultural strengths and protective practices to address these impacts within a supportive environment of collaboration and community action.

The presentation describes the essential role of cultural beliefs and practices in dynamic and innovation adaptation while detailing the Ujjiqsuiniq Program recognized as an important engagement program that leads to strength-based practice, resilience and stewardship of climate adaptations.

This will be a 20-minute oral presentation with 10 minutes for questions.

NUNAMIN ILLIHAKVIA: An Inuit-Led Climate Change Adaptation Initiative

Presenters: Gilbert Olifie and April Olifie

Climate change is already being experienced by Inuit living in the Canadian Arctic, with implications for travel safety and hunting success. An important factor in the ability to cope with and adapt to climatic changes affecting hunting is the sharing of traditional knowledge, including skills and values, which afford Inuit dynamic and flexible use of the environment even under changing conditions. The Inuit-led and administered Nunamin Illihavia project in Ulukhaktok, NT focuses on this important adaptation entry point by supporting the intergenerational transmission of traditional knowledge important for subsistence. The project has three core foci: 1) subsistence hunting, 2) fur preparation and sewing, and 3) Inuinnaqtun language. The oral presentation, video and discussion will focus on how Nunamin Illihakvia differs from other climate change adaptation initiatives in that it is Inuit-led and indirectly addresses climate change impacts through capacity building.

Presenters: Deborah Harford (moderator), Dr. Kristie Ebi, Dr. Peter Berry and Angie Woo

The health system is particularly central to the success or failure of climate resilience-building, as it is a nexus of response to the impacts of climate change, yet may itself be severely impacted by climate-related damages and stresses in the short, medium and long term. The health system’s overall resilience will depend on the contributions of a wide variety of disciplines and professions.

This oral presentation will introduce the concept of systems-level climate resilience as a means of illustrating ways to consider this challenge on a systemic level. Presenters will introduce stress-testing tools, provide an overview of how stress-testing has been used elsewhere in Canada, and lead participants through an interactive table-top scenario. The audience will increase their knowledge of climate change impacts on health systems, stress-testing tools and related data and resources, and the operationalization of interdisciplinarity in this context.

Presenters: Dr. Ian Picketts (moderator) and students TBC

In this session, select students from Quest University in the fourth year course “Human Responses to Climate Change” will present on aspects of their major class project that focus on climate change adaptation. Presentations will link together in a narrative arc, and will be delivered in creative and varied formats. Significant efforts will go into making these presentations interactive and engaging for the audience. Topics of particularly student interest (and likely focus) include: food security, transportation, sea level rise, inequity, community planning and Indigenous knowledge.