Climate Change Research and Services - A Dialogue with Stakeholders workshop report

On Monday May 30, CCRAI and OCAD University hosted a one day workshop – “Climate Change: A Dialogue with Stakeholders” – in support of the Ontario Regional Climate Change Consortium (ORCCC). The event was attended by over forty participants from the all levels of government, conservation authorities, the private sector, and nonprofit organizations. Having had the opportunity to collate and synthesize the sizable amount of information and feedback we received on the day we are pleased to present the Dialogue with Stakeholders report.

CC-RAI would like to once again thank our participants from the academic, government and private sector. Many thanks to Jack McConnell (York University), Claude Duguay (University of Waterloo) and Dick Peltier (University of Toronto) for their presentations on regional climate modelling in Ontario. The presentations will be posted shortly.

We would also like to thank Peter Jones (Design with Dialogue), Nabil Harfoush (Manara), visual facilitator Particia Kambitsch, Ciara de Jong at the City of Toronto’s Environment Office, Carl Knipfel and Doreen Balabanoff from OCAD University as well as York University and TRCA.

On Monday May 30, CCRAI and OCAD University hosted a one day workshop – “Climate Change: A Dialogue with Stakeholders” – in support of the Ontario Regional Climate Change Consortium (ORCCC). The event was attended by over forty participants from the all levels of government, conservation authorities, the private sector, and nonprofit organizations.

Climate Change: A Dialogue with Stakeholders

Today, municipalities, provincial ministries, public utilities, and private corporations lack access to consistent, high-quality information to guide necessary investments in climate change adaptation. To directly meet this gap, the Ontario Regional Climate Change Consortium (ORCCC) was formed in 2011 to facilitate a new breed type of inter-disciplinary, cross-sector coordination that will empower key decision-makers to more efficiently and effectively assess and manage regional climate risk with more focused, reliable climate information.

The goal of the workshop was to facilitate a dialogue and build a sense of community among climate modelers, data analysts and practitioners; help private and public sector stakeholders identify their initial climate information and service needs from modelers; establish a basis for similar, future events to further define scientific needs by sector or problem area; and identify other stakeholders that need to be included in subsequent discussions.

Following presentations by climate modellers including Jack McConnell (York University),Claude Duguay (University of Waterloo) and Dick Peltier (University of Toronto) on the state of regional modeling science and its application, participants launched into an interactive dialogue focused on their identifying their concerns related to climate change and the development of effective adaptation strategies.

Climate Cafe - Identifying climate research needs

Over the course of  morning and afternoon sessions, climate modellers and research scientists were able to discuss climate change issues with architects and designers, city planners, representatives from municipalities, as well as the provincial and federal government. The platform for the discussion resulted in extremely engaging conversation, so much so that participants kept working through breaks in the program (despite the fact fresh coffee was on offer). Working with professional facilitators Peter Jones (Design with Dialogue) and Nabil Harfoush (Manara), with support from Ciara de Jong at the City of Toronto’s Environment Office, Carl Knipfel and Doreen Balabanoff from OCAD University. CC-RAI would also like to thank TRCA, York University and OCAD University for their support in organizing this event. 

Jack McConnell, Prof. of Atmospheric Science, York University

The discussion produced a volume of material focused on assessing end-user needs for climate change information and services. This multi-sectoral event highlighted the need for improved collaboration and dialogue between the various stakeholders tasked with addressing climate change in their respective organizations and sectors. We look forward to posting the synthesis of the discussion in the coming weeks.

Since February of 2010, CC-RAI has been working with universities, as well as private and private sector organizations across the province to develop a pan-Ontario climate science, research and services initiative.  In October of 2010, an Ad Hoc Committee was formed to address the need for Ontario focused climate science services. Since then, the Committee has met at various universities across the province.  At each meeting support for collaborative action and cooperation between various stakeholders has grown.

Dr. Gordan McBean, a Canadian climatologist, professor at the University of Western Ontario and Director of Policy at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction chaired the Ad Hoc Committee process and has actively supported the development of the new Ontario Region Climate Change Consortium (ORCCC).

Ontario Regional Climate Change Consortium Q&A

The Consortium and its objectives have been defined through a collaborative and inclusive consensus-building process. The Consortium represents a made-in Ontario solution to provide decision makers in government and the private sector with the ‘climate intelligence’ they need to address the challenges of a changing climate now and into the future.

Through this process a strategy has been developed to identify Ontario’s need for climate services and research and its capacity to deliver them. In advance of the release of the ORCCC Strategy and for additional information, please take a look at the Consortium Q&A: Ontario Regional Climate Change Consortium: Building Necessary Capacity for Climate Services.

WNV has been a seasonal epidemic in Toronto since 2001. Nine of the twelve species of mosquito that carry WNV – known as vectors – live in the Toronto region. Since West Nile virus was first discovered in Southern Ontario, wetlands and storm water management ponds have been suspected of providing breeding grounds for WNV-carrying mosquitoes. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (one of the founding partners of CC-RAI) being the largest land owner in the Toronto region started their monitoring activities in response to these concerns.

From 2005-2009, Krishnaraj and her team have carried out the monitoring of selected wetlands and stormwater management ponds that are located on TRCA properties to determine the types of mosquitoes that were breeding, their relative abundance, and the risk of human WNV exposure originating from one of these sites. This work has been conducted as part of TRCA’s broader Regional Watershed Monitoring Program.

What did the TRCA research reveal? Wetlands generally have higher numbers of mosquito larvae than stormwater ponds but fewer WNV vector species. The overall risk of WNV exposure from wetlands and stormwater ponds is relatively low and, large numbers of mosquitoes (larvae) does not necessarily mean a higher risk of contracting WNV.

In all years except for 2006, wetlands had fewer species of WNV carrying mosquitoes than non-vector mosquito species. Storm water management ponds had very high percentages of vector mosquitoes, but the absolute number was generally not high enough to be a risk to the community. On average, there were only one or two high risk sites per year out of all the wetlands and storm water management ponds monitored.

On November 22nd Thilaka Krishnaraj, an entomologist at the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) gave a presentation on the outcomes of West Nile Virus (WNV) larval monitoring and surveillance activities in the Toronto region to a group of researchers and students from the Laboratory of Mathematical Parallel Systems (LAMPS) at the LAMPS Weekly Interdisciplinary Workshop.

Dr. Huaiping Zhu, an associate professor and project leader at LAMPS welcomed the opportunity to share expertise and understanding on the relationship between ecology and epidemiology.

Both TRCA and LAMPS realize the importance of monitoring, modeling and the additional research that is needed in understanding the ways in which ecosystems and consequently, epidemiology may well be impacted by a changing climate.

Professor Ram Yerubandi,  a research scientist for Environment Canada based at the Canada Centre for Inland Water, presented at CC-RAI’s Climate Science Workshop in February 2010.

Yerubandi’s presentation focuses on the linkages between the hydrodynamic modelling of the Great Lakes and atmospheric modelling.

Yerubandi highlights the importance of understanding the dynamic interplay between hydrodynamic systems and regional climate modelling.

His presentation explores the evolution of hydrodynamic modelling and their importance in accurately predicting changes to water quality and quantity in Ontario’s future.

At CC-RAI’s Climate Science Workshop, held in March 2010, Jack McConnell, professor of atmospheric science in York’s Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering and member of the Centre for Research in Earth & Space Science (CRESS), presented on climate research and modelling, as well as Ontario’s current capacity to develop regional climate models.

The presentation focused on the importance of developing integrated regional climate modelling capacity within Ontario.

McConnell highlighted the importance of the integrating Great Lakes  models, hydrology, crysospheric modelling, air quality, forestry and ecological data into regional climate models.

He also noted the importance of the human resources or highly-qualified personnel required do this work.

McConnell’s two-pronged approach to developing regional climate modelling capacity focuses on supporting collaboration and advancing the development of high-resolution modelling.