Transcript Slide 1

Thursday, July 2, 2009
IDRC
Ottawa
Co-directors: Patrick Watson, Dan Lane
Team members: Philippe Crabbé, Colleen Mercer Clarke, John Clarke, Ron Jones
North
Carolina
Beach,
Winter
IPCC 4th Assessment:
Climate Change and Water
“Higher water temperatures and changes in
extremes, including floods and droughts, are
projected to affect water quality and exacerbate
many forms of water pollution (high confidence).
In addition, sea-level rise is projected to extend areas of
salinisation of groundwater and estuaries, resulting in a
decrease of freshwater availability for humans and
ecosystems in coastal areas.”
14 October 2008
Richmond County Council Meeting
4
Halifax
2003
“We simply have no evidence
that implementation and
testing [for emergencies] has
taken place. This means
Canadians have no assurance
that essential government
operations will function during
emergencies.”
Canada 2008, p.6;
CTV News, September 18, 2008
We believe that use of scientific and
traditional knowledge, together with
better understanding of the
economic value of healthy coastal
ecosystems, can help change the
political discourse that eventually
determines societal pressures.
Societal responsibility and
responsiveness can only increase as
we improve the flow of pertinent and
useable scientific information.
This report offers a preliminary examination of the
potential costs to the island nations of the Caribbean.
…we compare an optimistic scenario and a pessimistic
one. Both scenarios are based largely on the 2007 report
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC).
The cost of inaction, or the difference
between these two scenarios, may be seen
as the potential savings from acting in
time to prevent the worst economic
consequences of climate change.
ICURA Project Proposal
 Project title:
“Managing adaptation to environmental change in coastal communities: Canada
and the Caribbean”
 Storm surge and sea level rise affecting water supply and coastal resources
 Enhancing community preparedness and capacity to adapt
 Caribbean coastal communities:
 Grand Riviere, Trinidad spawning ground for leatherback turtles (ecotourism)
 the Belize Barrier Reef (UNESCO World Heritage Danger List)
 Bequia in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (ecotourism)
 City of Georgetown, the capital of Guyana (below sea level)
 Canadian communities:
Charlottetown, P.E.I. (below sea level)
 Isle Madame, Nova Scotia (flooding, salination of water supply)
 Gibsons, British Columbia (aquafers concern)
June
2009
ICURA Start Up
 4,Iqaluit,
Nunavut (changing
climate impacts)

9
ICURA Team Members
Caribbean Workshop, Sept 3-7, 2008
Formal Proposal: Objectives
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develop local community capacity to close the gaps between inevitable
environmental change and the urgent need for local coastal communities to
adapt their own efforts to anticipate and plan for environmental impacts to
their physical, economic, and social well-being
improve planning for adaptation through the development and
incorporation of new policy and management measures consistent with
established planning theory and guidelines, and the local context, through
the identification and implementation of practical local alternatives for
coastal resource management
focus on immediate and downstream consequences to coastal
communities of the insidious effects of sea level rise and the potential
catastrophic impacts of extreme weather events
establish formal collaboration and mutual co-learning opportunities
among the selected Canadian and Caribbean coastal communities on
comparative research on policy implementation for adaptation to coastal
environmental shifts
Definition of Communities
Governance and local decision makers
1.

municipal governments, regional, provincial, federal regulations
Private and public infrastructure services
2.

planners and design professionals, utilities and services (fire,
electrical, engineering contractors, jurists, insurance, health care)
Business and economic activity organizations
3.
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corporations, small businesses, boards of trade and commerce,
development associations, community associations
Citizens’ groups
4.

environmental advocates, indigenous communities, seniors
Affected individuals
5.

especially special interest or disadvantaged members of the local
society who are socially differentiated by poverty and across
gender, class, race and age
Coastal Communities:Threat Criteria
serious, immediate threats to infrastructure and or
natural environments (e.g. tourism infrastructure,
natural resources, habitats, species), and to area
residents (e.g., livelihoods, family structure, cultural
assets, and vulnerabilities derived from poverty/gender
issues)
ii. ease of access to available data
iii. opportunities for partnerships and alliances
iv. team member familiarity with area and/or community
champions in place
i.
Source: http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/climatechange/potentialimpacts/coastalsensitivitysealevelrise
Program Objectives
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Community objectives
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University objectives
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Establish formal Community-University alliances
Strengthen community institutional arrangements
Establish long-term linkages
Prepare community action plans
Develop academic alliances
Collaborate on global research
Develop new curricula
Joint Community-University Alliances objectives
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2.
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Identify the short and long term vulnerabilities
Mobilize knowledge and innovation
Build capacity
Develop impact scenarios, and prepare adaptation action plans
Research Process
Community
Engagement
Strategies
Activities
Community
Encounter
Scenario
Development
Develop
Capacity
Analysis of
Cumulative
Community
Effects
Database
Development
SSM
Methods
SD
GIS
VI
AHP
Time/Milestones
Construct
Policy Options
Measure
Vulnerability
Adaptive
Capacity
The Research Process: Strategies
1. Community engagement
2. Scenario development
3. Capacity building
4. New governance options
5. Practical implementation
The Research Process: Activities
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Study area selection
Community alliance groups
Description database development and GIS presentation
Alternative scenarios
Cumulative effects analysis
Adaptive capacity
Risk and vulnerability analysis
Policy and instruments
Strategic Adaptation Plans
The Research Process: Milestones & Methods
 Year 1
 Establish project website as key communication link
 Establish Community-University Alliance Groups (contact teams)
 Develop community profiles, establish community inventory (resources, demographics,
governance, activities, plans)
 Year 2
 Prepare community spatial models with baseline indices (GIS, SD)
 Develop space-based scenarios
 Develop sensitivity and vulnerability indices
 Year 3
 Work with community groups for ‘buy-in’ (SSM)
 Provide community training in spatial and vulnerability index use (VI)
 Year 4
 Prepare decision making guidelines for local dissemination
 Discuss, review, and feedback scenarios and prepare monitoring and tracking capabilities
 Year 5
 Develop and consolidate Final Report
Methodology
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Problem definition
Data collection and community database (SSM, SD)
Visual modelling (GIS)
Vulnerability modelling (VI)
Adaptive capacity and resilience modelling (VI, RI)
Development and assessment of policy options (SD)
Evaluation of group decision making (AHP)
Implementation of local adaptation planning and
action frameworks
June 4, 2009
ICURA Start Up
21
Project Outcomes
1. Creation and Communication of Knowledge
2. Co-Learning
3. Decision Support Tools
4. Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators
5. Training
6. Community Adaptation Action Plans (CAAPs)
7. Governance Institutional Advice
Project Management
 Annual - reporting requirements and full team
meetings (situated around conferences)
 Quarterly - Regional (in country meetings in sites)
 Monthly – Newsletter to team
 Weekly – regular Website updates; ongoinh
advertisements
 Budgeting
 Resource availability and use (resource costing)
Project Itinerary
 Integrating (Canada & Caribbean) meetings – Annually around Conferences
(Turtles, OMRN, CZCA)
 Domestic meetings
Formal & Informal
 Draft Itinerary (under discussion)
 June 29-30, 2009
SSHRC-IDRC Start-Up
 End Sept 2009
Canada Co-apps + collaborators
 October 2009
OMRN Conference - ICURA joint meeting
 Nov 2009
Meeting with Partners (in Canada, in the
Caribbean)
 January 2010
Milestone framework
 Feb-March 2010
Canada + Caribbean (T&T); partner site
alternatives
 June 2010
CZCA Conference, Charlottetown, P.E.I.
 August 2010
Annual meeting – conference, presentation of
work to date; participants and invited
Partners Acknowledgement
 Canada
June 4, 2009
ICURA Start Up
26
Partners Acknowledgement
 Caribbean
June 4, 2009
ICURA Start Up
27