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ICURA Start-Up Preliminary Discussion

ICURA Start-Up Preliminary Discussion. Thursday, July 2, 2009 IDRC Ottawa Co-directors: Patrick Watson, Dan Lane Team members: Philippe Crabb é, Colleen Mercer Clarke, John Clarke, Ron Jones. North Carolina Beach, Winter. IPCC 4 th Assessment: Climate Change and Water.

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ICURA Start-Up Preliminary Discussion

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  1. ICURA Start-UpPreliminary Discussion Thursday, July 2, 2009 IDRC Ottawa Co-directors: Patrick Watson, Dan Lane Team members: Philippe Crabbé, Colleen Mercer Clarke, John Clarke, Ron Jones

  2. North Carolina Beach, Winter

  3. 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.”

  4. 14 October 2008 Richmond County Council Meeting 4

  5. Halifax 2003

  6. “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

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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) • Iqaluit, Nunavut (changing climate impacts) ICURA Start Up

  10. ICURA Team MembersCaribbean Workshop, Sept 3-7, 2008

  11. Formal Proposal: Objectives • 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

  12. Definition of Communities • Governance and local decision makers • municipal governments, regional, provincial, federal regulations • Private and public infrastructure services • planners and design professionals, utilities and services (fire, electrical, engineering contractors, jurists, insurance, health care) • Business and economic activity organizations • corporations, small businesses, boards of trade and commerce, development associations, community associations • Citizens’ groups • environmental advocates, indigenous communities, seniors • Affected individuals • especially special interest or disadvantaged members of the local society who are socially differentiated by poverty and across gender, class, race and age

  13. 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) • ease of access to available data • opportunities for partnerships and alliances • team member familiarity with area and/or community champions in place

  14. Source: http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/climatechange/potentialimpacts/coastalsensitivitysealevelrise

  15. Program Objectives • Community objectives • Establish formal Community-University alliances • Strengthen community institutional arrangements • Establish long-term linkages • Prepare community action plans • University objectives • Develop academic alliances • Collaborate on global research • Develop new curricula • Joint Community-University Alliances objectives • Identify the short and long term vulnerabilities • Mobilize knowledge and innovation • Build capacity • Develop impact scenarios, and prepare adaptation action plans

  16. Research Process

  17. The Research Process: Strategies • Community engagement • Scenario development • Capacity building • New governance options • Practical implementation

  18. The Research Process: Activities • 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

  19. 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

  20. Methodology • 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 ICURA Start Up

  21. Project Outcomes • Creation and Communication of Knowledge • Co-Learning • Decision Support Tools • Monitoring and EvaluationIndicators • Training • Community Adaptation Action Plans(CAAPs) • Governance Institutional Advice

  22. 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)

  23. 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

  24. Partners Acknowledgement • Canada ICURA Start Up

  25. Partners Acknowledgement • Caribbean ICURA Start Up

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