Thematic Network on Local-Scale Planning, Climate Change and Resilience

The aim of this Thematic Network is to explore how communities confront climate change, including assessment of governance structures around climate adaptation or processes dealing with it, and how they seek to adapt to emerging challenges arising from increases in temperature and more extreme weather events. Research will facilitate a better understanding of local expertise and highlight, in particular, the value a community planning perspective brings to discourse on climate resilience. It will shed light on local government decision dynamics around motivational factors and extent of planning for climate resilience.

The TN aims to work collaboratively with local actors and key stakeholders to identify current and future environmental challenges, and to scope how research through the TN can assist communities increase their resilience to the impacts of climate variability, be it through the co-development of policy approaches, on-the-ground action implementation, research capacity and/ or knowledge mobilization, for example. One of the distinctive aspects of this TN is that it will work within and across scales from larger urban centres to small communities, including attention to Indigenous forms of community planning for climate resilience.

• Seminar: “Northern Adaptation and Resilience”
  • Online, January 20, 2025, 12-1pm (MST)
  • Speaker: Alison Perrin, Yukon University, (Canada)
  • Hosted by the UArctic Thematic Network on Local-scale Planning, Climate Change and Resilience Speaker Series, and the Northern Students’ Association Northern Spotlights Series, University of Alberta (Canada).
  • Supported by the School of Urban and Regional Planning University of Alberta (Canada).

• Seminar: “Global Challenges, Local Struggles: Dissecting Arctic Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples Adaptation in Nunatsiavut”
  • Online, February 10, 2025, 12-1pm (MST)
  • Speaker: Ishfaq Hussain Malik, University of Leeds (UK)
  • Hosted by the UArctic Thematic Network on Local-scale Planning, Climate Change and Resilience Speaker Series, and the Northern Students’ Association Northern Spotlights Series, University of Alberta (Canada).
  • Supported by the School of Urban and Regional Planning University of Alberta (Canada).

• Seminar: “Visualizing the Landscape of Tribal Communities: A Context for Working in Rural Alaska”
  • Online, March 31, 2025, 12-1pm (MST)
  • Speaker: Adelheid Herrmann, University of Alaska Fairbanks (USA)
  • Hosted by the UArctic Thematic Network on Local-scale Planning, Climate Change and Resilience Speaker Series, and the Northern Students’ Association Northern Spotlights Series, University of Alberta (Canada).
  • Supported by the School of Urban and Regional Planning University of Alberta (Canada).

• Annual Partners Meeting
  • Details to be determine (aiming for Zoom meeting early December 2024)

• Call for Proposals: Adaptation Futures 2025 – Accelerating Adaptation Action
  • Christchurch, New Zealand
  • October 13-16, 2025
  • NOTE: The TN on Local-scale Planning, Climate Change and Resilience will be holding the 2025 Annual Partners Meeting as a side event at Adaptation Futures 2025.
• Seminar: “A Look at the Waste Management-Climate Change Nexus in Indigenous and Northern Communities”
  • Online, November 22, 2024, 12-1pm (MST)
  • Speaker: Anderson Assuah, University College of the North (Canada)
  • Hosted by the UArctic Thematic Network on Local-scale Planning, Climate Change and Resilience Speaker Series, and the Northern Students’ Association Northern Spotlights Series, University of Alberta (Canada).
  • Supported by the School of Urban and Regional Planning University of Alberta (Canada).
  • Click here for poster (includes registration/ Zoom details).
• What it means to be RESILIENT? - Invitation to join the project: The High North Center, Nord University and the Belfer Center Arctic Initiative, Havard Kennedy School welcome proposals for stories and case studies to incorporate into «What it means to be resilient: Lessons from the Arctic» - a project aimed at exploring stories and case studies of resilience in the Arctic context.
  • Submit abstracts for a project exploring Arctic resilience stories. Outcomes include a peer-reviewed book published in Open Access with an international publisher and Virtual Storyboard.
  • If you have an interesting experience, case study, or research that exemplifies Arctic resilience, we invite you to submit a proposal by October 10th, 2024, via this form.
  • Please follow this link for call for proposals, registration, and example of the Resilience Virtual Storyboard.
• Collaboration: University of Alaska Anchorage and the UArctic Thematic Network on Local-scale Planning, Climate Change and Resilience are collaborating on a National Science Foundation AccelNet grant: Facilitating wide-ranging public policy collaboration for an economically resilient and environmentally sustainable future.

• Scholarship Winner! Nicole Bonnett, from the University of Alberta, was awarded (September 2024) the highly competitive Steve and Elaine Antoniuk Grad Scholarship in Arctic Research, for her work on managed relocation (retreat) and climate adaptation planning.

• Northern Spotlights Speaker Series: The Northern Students' Association at the University of Alberta is beginning a new speaker series Fall 2024/Winter 2025. It will highlight faculty and student northern research, meaningful experiences, and relevant topics in the north. We request your participation as speakers, storytellers, or workshop hosts. Please sign up with a preliminary topic and your availability by September 7 to participate in the Fall 2024 term, and by December 1 to participate in the Winter 2025 term. We will coordinate speakers with related topics and formalize a schedule as each term proceeds.
  • FORMAT: We recommend 12–18 minutes for student research talks, 40–55 minutes for faculty research talks, or 40–80 minutes for prepared activities like workshops or discussion circles. We anticipate that a majority of presenters may share traditional research talks, but we welcome all ways of sharing and creating knowledge.
  • TIME/LOCATION: Talks will be hosted on campus over lunch (11:30 AM - 1:30 PM). Remote presenters' talks will be broadcast in person on campus. 
  • We hope you will participate, share your insights, and attend to learn about research and experiences occurring broadly across our academic community. For further information, please contact us” csanorth@ualberta.ca

Read the latest news stories here below:

For more news, please see the Related News section.

• Filimonova, N., Birchall, SJ. (2024). Sustainable municipal solid waste management: A comparative analysis of enablers and barriers to advance governance in the Arctic. Journal of Environmental Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123111. ·
• Herrmann, A. (2024). Landscape of Tribal communities: Context for working in rural Alaska. Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, University of Alaska Fairbanks International Arctic Research Center.
• Rose, D., Birchall, SJ. (2024). Bolstering community resilience through health-focused climate change adaptation: Moving from talk to action in Western Canadian communities. Climate Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2024.2395920.
• Zazula, N., Birchall, SJ. (2024). Urban resilience through ecosystem services in Edmonton, Canada: An assessment of gaps and recommendations. Urban Ecosystems. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-024-01561-x.
• Birchall, SJ., MacDonald, S., Bonnett, N. (2024). Climate change adaptation planning: Breaking down barriers through comprehensive educational frameworks. Journal of Planning Education and Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X241242059.
• Muffly, J., Birchall, SJ. (2023). Key Elements of defensible space land use bylaw provisions in wildland-urban interface municipalities of Alberta, Canada. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103988.
• Birchall, SJ, Kehler, S. (2023). Denial and discretion as a governance process: How actor perceptions of risk and responsibility hinder adaptation to climate change. Environmental Science and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2023.05.017.
• Kehler, S. & Birchall, SJ. (2023). Climate change adaptation: How short-term political priorities trample public well-being. Environmental Science & Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2023.05.012.
• J D’Souza, J Dawson, M Groulx (2023). Last chance tourism: a decade review of a case study on Churchill, Manitoba’s polar bear viewing industry. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 31 (1), 14-31.

More information and past activities can be found here.

Thematic Network Cross-links:

• Arctic Sustainable Resources and Social Responsibility - Karin Buhmann (Copenhagen Business School, DENMARK)
• Arctic and Northern Governance - Gary Wilson (University of Northern British Columbia, CANADA)
• Natural Hazards - Katia Kontar (Tufts University, UNITED STATES)
• Collaborative Resource Management - Finn Danielsen (NORDECO, GREENLAND)

Video interview: Jeff Birchall, Lead of the UArctic Thematic Network on Local-Scale Planning, Climate Change and Resilience