GEOG 990 Colloquia - final one for the year

You are invited to attend the final colloquium for this year. It is being held in Room 144 Kirk Hall at 1:30pm this Friday, March 27th.
Please note that the time and room have changed.
This week the presenters will be:
TUBBSUM, MUHAMMAD Ph.D. Candidate, Supervisor: Dr. Ryan Walker
Modeling and Analyzing Land Cover/Land Use Change Under Different Property Regimes in Central Saskatchewan

CROWLEY, CLAIRE M.Sc. Candidate, Supervisor: Dr. Jill Gunn
How context affects uncertainty disclosure and communication in environmental impact assessment: a study of energy development in Northern Alberta

AL IBRAHIM, AZHAR M.A. Candidate, Co-Supervisors: Dr. Robert Patrick
Source Water Protection Planning in Metropolitan Canada:
Barriers and Opportunities

SIZO, ANTON Ph.D. Candidate, Co-Supervisors: Drs. Scott Bell and Bram Noble
SEA Space and Time Models for Land Use Planning and Development in an Urban Wetland Context

Abstracts
CROWLEY, CLAIRE, M.Sc. Candidate, Supervisor: Dr. Jill Gunn
How context affects uncertainty disclosure and communication in environmental impact assessment: a study of energy development in Northern Alberta
This study investigates practices of uncertainty consideration, avoidance, and disclosure in Canadian environmental impact assessment (EIA) within the context of social, political, economic, and environmental project conditions, using the case of the Joslyn North Oil Sands Mine development project in Northeastern Alberta. Stakeholder views on uncertainty were investigated using semi-structured interviews. Nineteen interviews were performed with key project informants including practitioners, reviewers, panel members, interveners, and consultants. The core uncertainties internal to the process include varying lenses of understanding, language and dissemination of the assessment, use of professional judgment in lieu of sufficient data, the lack of proper baseline data, and project terms of reference. The core uncertainties external to the process include concerns with the level of confidence in the Alberta approval system, deficiency of integrated assessments, policy limitations, absence of measureable thresholds and criteria, and concerns with the relationship dynamics between the federal and provincial regulating bodies and industry. Uncertainties about the cumulative effects assessment, species at risk, critical habitat, wildlife setbacks and corridors around the Ells River Valley, and the dynamics of the stakeholder relationships (i.e., change in project operators) also contributed significantly to uncertainty disclosure, consideration, and avoidance practices in the Joslyn Mine case. Recommendations to improve uncertainty disclosure and communication are provided to improve decision-making in EIA.

AL IBRAHIM, AZHAR, M.A. Candidate, Co-Supervisors: Dr. Robert Patrick
Source Water Protection Planning in Metropolitan Canada: Barriers and Opportunities
Source Water Protection (SWP) is recognized as the first barrier in the multi-barrier approach to reduce the risk of drinking water contamination. In Canada, provincial water agencies or municipalities lead most of the water management responsibility based on provincial regulations for source water protection. However, SWP implementation is variable and influenced by different factors related to local capacity. Much of the water resources literature is focused on capacity-building limitations faced by small and rural water system operators. The purpose of this research is to investigate capacity-building limitations faced by metropolitan water system operators. Information from a questionnaire and document review in four selected Canadian metropolitan areas was gather and analysed in this study. The results of this study show variability of SWP planning uptake as well as variability in approach toward SWP implementation. While large metropolitan areas may appear to possess ready access to financial capital, technical capability, and other forms of capacity to undertake SWP, the results of this research indicate the opposite. Metropolitan areas in Canada remain reliant on advanced water treatment and other engineering solutions to provide safe drinking water as opposed to SWP planning that invests in preventative measures through land use planning mechanisms. The results of this research contribute to the knowledge and understanding of SWP particularly as applied to metropolitan Canada.

ANTON SIZO, Ph.D. Candidate, Co-Supervisors: Drs. Scott Bell and Bram Noble
SEA Space and Time Models for Land Use Planning and Development in an Urban Wetland Context
This research intended to advance the current Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) approach and methodology in the context of wetland habitat in urban growth and development. The research consists of three phases. The first phase presents and demonstrates a spatial framework for the application of SEA in the context of change analysis for urban wetland environments. The study aims to meet the needs for proactive frameworks to assess and protect wetland habitat and services more efficiently, toward the goal of advance and intelligent urban planning and development design. The second phase presents a scenario-based approach to SEA for a wetland trend analysis and land use and land cover (LUC) modeling in urban environment. This phase also identifies the challenges to applied SEA in a rapidly changing urban planning context, where data are often sparse and inconsistent across the urban region. In addition, it provides potential solutions through LUC classification and prediction tools to help overcome data limitations to support land use planning decisions for wetland conservation. The third phase presents a scenario-based approach for an evaluation of potential implications of wetland conservation strategies on sustainable urban development. The presented approach is combined with individual wetland preference ranking scheme for identification of ecologically grounded individual wetland conservation preference for development areas. Overall, the research contributes to the following aspects of SEA: i. scoping process that defines the spatial and temporal context for SEA, ii. baseline assessment that analyzes environmental conditions and their changes across space and/or over time, and iii. identification and evaluation of potential impacts of strategic alternatives.