Building Capacity for Difficult Conversations on Floor Risk Management in Canadian Coastal Communities
Eva Angelyna Bogdan, University of Waterloo
Flooding is a complex problem involving diverse stakeholders with conflicting interests and it requires social innovations. Flood risk management (FRM) is contentious because it touches on core values of safety, property rights and economic security. Conflicts surrounding solutions often overwhelm decision-makers, deadlock policies and privilege top-down approaches at the expense of legitimacy—participation, equity, accountability and transparency—which is essential for good governance. Dr. Bogdon’s project’s aim is to develop an innovative process, the Tough Conversations Protocol, to facilitate a shift to a more integrated FRM approach in Canada which will, in turn, increase the legitimacy of FRM policies. Read more about the work here.
Characterisation of Storm Surge Risk in Atlantic Canada and the Eastern United States for Insurance and Coastal Stakeholders
Dr. David Carozza, Université du Québec à Montréal
Increases in sea-level due to human-driven global warming have brought coastal flooding to the forefront of coastal community planning and policymaking. In addition to increasing sea level, tropical and extratropical cyclones drive surge events that push tremendous amounts of seawater onto the coast and cause a wide variety of damage to people, property and ecosystems. Such surge events are an important source of flood risk in coastal regions of Atlantic Canada. This project proposes to build a surge model forced by cyclonic storms that is based on a tropical cyclone risk model that we are currently using, and to employ this model to construct a catalogue of storm surge events for the eastern Canadian and American coastlines.
Developing Spatially Explicit Tools to Minimize Costs and Maximize Benefits of Marine Invasive Species Control
Alexandra Davis, University of Alberta
Using existing data on removal and site specifications and working with management to collect more data, this project will create models to determine the cost of removal of European green crab (Carcinus maenas) on the West Coast of Canada, and in the Salish Sea. Dr. Davis and the team will also create models that predict the probability of removal from sites, high densities of green crab, and the likelihood of recolonization at sites once removals have happened. These model outcomes integrated with management goals (i.e. preservation of eelgrass for juvenile salmon) we can create a conservation management tool designed to prioritize sites of value for focused population control. Tools such as these (Zonation, Prioritzr) allow managers to input details unique to their organization or jurisdiction and create effective conservation plans that have the lowest socioeconomic strain. More on Dr. Davis, here.
Developing Long-Term Reconstruction of Sea Level, Shoreline, and Human Settlement Change on the Northern Coast of British Columbia
Bryn Letham, Simon Fraser University
Coastal societies occupy dynamic landscapes and are a part of ecosystems vulnerable to climate change. Present-day climate change is having an exacerbating effect on our coasts in the form of increasing ocean surface temperatures, sea-level rise, and increased storm events. However, many Indigenous societies thrived sustainably and resiliently in coastal settings for millennia. On the Northwest Coast of North America there is archaeological evidence for remarkably stable and persistent occupation of certain locations, even when these places transformed with changing sea levels (and, resultingly, changing local ecosystems) (Cannon 2002, 2003; Letham et al. 2017; McLaren et al. 2015; Moss 2011). Though today we face climate change at an increasing rate, understanding long-term histories of coastal changes, and the ways in which past communities were resilient is important for developing baselines for studying contemporary changes and assessing future challenges (Kirch 2005; Van der Noort 2013).
This research focuses on deep-time human-environment interactions on the Northwest Coast: what are the long-term histories of RSL and shoreline change since the end of the Last Ice Age, and how and why are certain societies resilient in the face of coastal change? In partnership with Ban et al.’s MEOPAR-funded research in collaboration with the Gitga’at First Nation, Letham is employing geological and archaeological methods to reconstruct histories of RSL change from deglaciation to the present and investigating several large ancient village sites where occupation persisted through RSL changes of up to 5-10 vertical meters.
Tracking Coastal Fish Movements in the Western Canadian Arctic to Address Community Concerns and Understand Flexibility to Ecosystem Change
Harri Pettitt-Wade, University of Windsor
Climate-driven change in Arctic ecosystems includes the ongoing northern range expansion of sub-Arctic fauna and the contraction of the distribution of common Arctic fauna. These fluctuations are rapidly impacting food webs and communities across the Arctic with unknown consequences for subsistence fisheries and the ecological integrity of Arctic food webs. Measures of ecological niche and adaptive response of marine fauna to climate often lack data on movement behaviour. In particular, there is a lack of understanding of the fundamental drivers and regulators of coastal fish movement and habitat connectivity among coastal Arctic ecosystems. Inuvialuit, Inuit, researchers and policymakers have identified a need to better understand the movement of key subsistence and ecologically important marine fish in relation to a changing environment. This project focuses on Arctic char and Greenland cod, identified as priority fish by the community of Ulukhaktok and aims to develop a multi-layered co-produced dataset that will ultimately be used to predict fish distributions and behaviour under climate scenarios and facilitate the adaptive and sustainable response of communities to react to ecosystem changes.
Community Perspectives on the Impacts of Increased Shipping and Climate Change Along the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic
Nicolien van Luijk, University of Ottawa
The rapid increase of shipping propelled by climate change poses significant threats to the Arctic region. In response to the increase in shipping activity, the Canadian Government has proposed the creation of Low Impact Shipping Corridors as an adaptation strategy to support coastal resilience – to minimize the negative impacts and increase the safety of shipping in the Arctic. While a large amount of data has been used to generate these corridors, traditional knowledge from Arctic communities has yet to be considered in much detail. Thus, the corridors as they are currently prioritized, lack fundamental local perspectives among the people who know the area best. My research plan for the MEOPAR award involves building on
the Arctic Corridors Northern Voices (led by Dr. Jackie Dawson) project with a specific focus on considering the impacts of climate change and shipping in communities located along the Northwest Passage (NWP). Because of their positioning along the NWP, communities in this area are expected to experience some of the highest rates of increase in shipping in the future.
Development of the Canadian Ocean Literacy Strategy
Lilia Yumagulova, Simon Fraser University
In Canada and internationally, there is a growing interest in “ocean literacy” (OL), which can be defined as the extent to which we understand our impact on the ocean and the ocean’s impact on us. OL is also a strategic objective for the 2021-2030 UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. For coastal communities, Indigenous people, and small-scale fisher-folk, this connectedness to the ocean is inextricably linked to livelihoods, food security, cultural continuity and well-being. Yet, the ocean plays a critical role in the overall well-being of all Canadians, even those living far from our coastlines.
The main value of this research is in the co-development of a national OL strategy based on regional findings and recommendations. As the Pacific region coordinator, Dr. Yumagulova conducted focused document analysis, asset mapping, data analysis, and synthesize regional findings directly to inform the drafting of the national strategy. With extensive networks and relationships with Indigenous communities from coast to coast, she also developed a respectful approach for including Indigenous ways of knowing and relating to the ocean as part of the national strategy. This is very important since in Canada, ‘ocean literacy’ in formal education has been dominated by Western scientific approaches.
