The case study, Sea Level Rise Adaptation in Delta (BC RAC project) will be highlighted at the AAAS Conference during a Press briefing on Sunday Feb 19th at 3:00 pm. David Flanders from CALP will be interviewed.  More details on this case study.

Read the UBC Office of Government Relations Bulletin, (Winter 2012) highlighting CALP’s Local Climate Change Visioning project research.

This session brings together leading multidisciplinary experts involved in communicating climate change to users and society, to reveal new research findings and stimulate a crucial scientific debate on the appropriate role of visualization tools and processes to support policy and action. It explores the benefits, risks, and dilemmas of going beyond the physical sciences and reimagining the future, through interactive visualization and discussion with session participants. Breakout discussions will be facilitated and outcomes recorded by the speakers and experts from fields such as climate scenarios, scientific visualization, multimedia decision theaters, electronic communications, psychology, and visualization ethics.  Read more about this symposium and AAAS conference by visiting link http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session4604.html

Dr. Stephen Sheppard was interviewed for the article “Burning Questions: CNV hosts another energy-focused session, this time on biomass energy”, which appeared in the December 15, 2011 North Shore Outlook.  Read full article.

On April 1, 2011 GEOIDE approved this project (one of eight Targeted Strategic Investment Initiative projects) in partnership with the Neptis Foundation.

The need for Canada’s urban regions to become more sustainable in environmental, economic, and social terms has grown markedly over the past decade. In this light, a variety of provincial, metropolitan and local initiatives have been launched to address sector-specific, thematic dimensions of urban sustainability including urban sprawl (e.g. Ontario Places to Grow Act 2005), energy production and consumption (BC Bill 27 Green Communities 2007, Ontario Green Energy Act 2009) and transportation (e.g. Region of Waterloo Light Rapid Transit, Metrolinx Regional Transportation Plan). Such initiatives are transformative in nature, demand substantial realignment of public priorities and resource allocations and, ultimately, are implemented, planned and managed at local and regional scales, with local implications for neighbourhood livability and functionality.

This project will address these needs by producing “digital stories based in data”, based on interactive scenario exploration tools and methods that link future land use choices, transportation infrastructure, energy and climate change (GHG) strategies. Specifically, the project proposes to develop and test a suite of prototype web-based “spatial dashboard” decision tools, coupled with immersive geovisualization environments, to foster information-rich and scenario-based exploration of land use and select urban sustainability issues. The tools will be applied to three interrelated problem domains highly relevant in the Canadian urban context: a) urban intensification and land use change, b) transportation systems, and c) urban energy demand, renewable energy potential, and GHG emissions reductions.

This project will seek to overcome this barrier in three key ways. First, a multi-scale approach will be adopted to permit neighbourhood level changes to land use, transportation and energy use / generation to be understood in light of regional land use/transportation systems. Second, development and evaluation of the tools and use protocols will be conducted across the urban regions of Toronto, Vancouver and Waterloo, with some variation for local concerns and expertise, in order to ensure transferability of research outputs. Finally, our research will be anchored in practice through deep involvement of key local and regional partners (e.g. Toronto and Regional Conservation Authority, Metro Vancouver, Surrey, Richmond, Waterloo Region, Toronto District School Board), working closely with NEPTIS on overall tool development and usability. Thus, end-user engagement is a cross-cutting dimension of this project, involving a spectrum of local decision makers, domain experts, and interested citizens, that will ensure the research is relevant to practice.

Read the 2011 GEOIDE Progress Report for this project TSII-201.  Please contact Ellen Pond for more information.

Funded by: GEOIDE Networks of Centres of Excellence/Neptis Foundation (2011 – 2013) (Phase IV Project:  TSII-201)
Project Leader: Dr. Eric J. Miller, University of Toronto
Deputy Project Leader: Dr. Stephen Sheppard
UBC Researchers:  Ellen Pond, Ron Kellett

For some, seeing is believing and the BC Hydro Theatre in UBC’s new Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability is like a crystal ball, giving communities a look into their future.  Read the ”Window Into The Future” article in the Nov 3, 2011 UBC Reports by Heather Amos at UBC.

Effective Sept 2, 2011 CALP researcher and staff offices are located on the 2nd floor of the new CIRS building at UBC.  Our mailing address is #2321 – 2260 West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4.  Dr. Stephen Sheppard’s office will remain in the Forest Sciences Centre, located at 2045 – 2424 Main Mall.  All phone numbers remain unchanged.

CTV News interviewed Dr. Stephen Sheppard, for CALP’s work on future scenarios with climate change and visualizing modelled and narrative futures in the Lower Mainland.  This interview was a feature in their Vancouver’s 125^th Anniversary show, projecting what Vancouver will look like in the next 125 years.  To watch the the archived video, visit this link .  This feature story ”Vancouver 2136″, aired April 6, 2011 on CTV.

The BC Hydro Theatre (or as CALP refers to it  as “the Decision Theatre”), will feature advanced visualization and interaction technologies to engage audiences in simulations of sustainability scenarios in Metro Vancouver and beyond. Groups will be able to “fly” to different locations, visualize the neighbourhood now and in the future, and manipulate information using wireless devices connected to large visual display screens in order to consider the potential impacts of climate change, energy use and sustainability. Reconfigurable screens will maximize flexibility and allow experimentation with the theatre technology itself.  For more information on the theatre, please contact the Project Manager: Jon Salter or Project Coordinator: Angelique Pilon.

This project was made possible with funding from Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), BC Hydro and other funding partners.  Please visit the CIRS’ website for more information.

This research project is a continuation of the Local Climate Change Visioning Tools and Process for Community Decision Making project.  Our aim is to develop a prototype for improved community planning to localize, spatialize, and visualize climate change effects using downscaled climate modeling, geospatial information, and the best available land-use models. Versions of the prototype process and tools will be tested in four case study communities across Canada:  in Greater Vancouver, downtown Toronto, the Bow River watershed in Alberta, and Clyde River in Nunavut. 

Clyde River is an arctic Hamlet of approximately 1,000 people in Canada’s Nunavut Territory.  Arctic regions are seeing rapid changes in weather, landscape and lifestyle as a result of climate change, communities are geographically dispersed and culturally distinct from the central government.  Climate change planning in this context is especially challenging, and this project seeks to understand the role that 4D visioning might play in assisting communities and governments better adapt to the changes ahead.   

Researchers from CALP are working with the Ittaq Heritage and Research Centre in Clyde River, and with Natural Resources Canada to collaboratively develop and model future development scenarios based on key community priorities.  Community meetings, radio shows, mapping workshops, and 3D modeling have all been used to communicate these scenarios to different audiences. 

Future work will continue to share this work with relevant decision-makers in the Government of Nunavut and beyond, and to evaluate its potential usefulness to future planning projects in the north.

Download a 2-page summary of the project from January, 2011.   CALP’s latest work in Clyde River can also be seen on the ITTAQ’s website (under their Projects page).

For more information, please contact Kristi Tatebe Kristine.tatebe@ubc.ca or David Flanders David.Flanders@ubc.ca

Funded by: GEOIDE Networks of Centres of Excellence (Phase IV 2009 – 2012)
Project Leadr: Dr. Stephen Sheppard
CALP Researchers:  Kristi Tatebe, David Flanders, Ellen Pond

BC’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative (BC RAC) is a collection of projects across the province relating to climate change adaptation and water issues. A three-year project, this work began in 2009 and will continue into 2012. The CALP RAC project focuses on flood adaptation planning in the Fraser River delta community of Delta, BC.

The Province of BC provides guidelines and tools for flood risk management; however, it is the responsibility of the local governments to define their flood hazards, integrate these with land use planning policies and implement sufficient flood protection. Uncertainty in climate science and the lack of effective engagement tools make it difficult for local governments to build public support for flood-related climate policy and action. Previous CALP research in 2007 using visualization of flood scenarios and adaptation options has proven effective in developing community awareness of and support for adaptation needs in the community, and this project seeks to build on this success..

Existing research & knowledge of local vulnerability to climate change will be combined with new data to support stakeholder dialogue in this process to identify, visualize, and evaluate adaptation options to coastal and river flood risk under climate change in the Corporation of Delta, BC. Project outputs will include recommendations regarding adaptation decision-making and policy, that can also inform other communities in the province facing similar risks.

For more information on the RAC project, please visit the Fraser Basin Council’s project website or contact Kristi Tatebe at CALP for more information.

Funded by: Natural Resources Canada (Regional Adaptation Collaborative) and the Fraser Basin Council (2009 – 2012)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Stephen Sheppard
CALP Researchers: Kristi Tatebe, Olaf Schroth, Ellen Pond, and David Flanders

CALP’s Local Climate Change Visioning and Landscape Visualizations: Guidance Manual (Version 1.1) was finalized in July 2010 and now available in published and digital form.  This guide is intended to be used by local communities: decision-makers/practitioners, sustainability citizen groups, consultants, and others, to help develop resilient local communities in an uncertain climate change future.  The printing of this manual was made possible by funding from the Climate Action Secretariat and Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions.

Full reference:  Pond, Ellen, Olaf Schroth, Stephen Sheppard, Sara Muir-Owen, Ingrid Lipa, Cam Campbell, Jon Salter, Kristi Tatebe and David Flanders.  2010.  Local Climate Change Visioning and Landscape Visualizations: Guidance Manual (Version 1.1). Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning, University of  BC. (25 MB pdf download: CALP Visioning Guidance Manual Version 1.1) or download a 5 page Executive Summary  of the Guidance Manual (1.66MB pdf).

Is seeing really believing when it comes to climate change? Starting Sept 2010, Dr. Stephen R. J. Sheppard and his students will examine this topic through a leading-edge pilot course being offered at UBC. Visualizing Climate Change (CONS 449C Section 101) will widen the lens on climate change and use the universal appeal of visual media to illustrate the big picture and focus on solutions. The course has no prerequisites and is geared toward second year and higher undergraduate students from the arts and sciences who are interested in climate change and exploring their options.   For more information visit:  http://sustain.ubc.ca/teaching-learning/featured-content/visualizing-climate-change

Read more in the August 2010 UBC Reports http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2010/08/05/climate-change-seeing-is-believing

The idea behind this project (6 visioning sessions) is to inform and engage potential community leaders in the Regional Climate Action Dialogues about the LCCV process, with the objectives of :

• Demonstration and knowledge transfer on visioning methods and requirements, with the launching of new visioning guidelines (sponsored by Ministry of Community Development).
• Providing a framework for initial cross-sectoral discussion and  collaboration of Forum attendees. Because the Visioning session will come at the end of the RCAD, the session can build on what Forum participants have learned and discussed over the previous day and a half, eg. in the clean energy and community infrastructure sessions.
• Offering a possible pathway to action after the Forums through an ongoing visioning process driven by regional stakeholders or local communities, to help develop/affirm more tangible regional goals for action by various sectors (both formal and informal). Participants can then leave the sessions with some tangible outcomes, ideas, and effective tools for collectively addressing climate change and, through the broader RCAD, the social and professional networks to implement those tools.

150 participants attended the Climate Action Event:  ”Big Leaps and Small Steps”, University of Victoria held June 10th, 2010.  Components of this event were:

-       Sector Leaders Dialogue
-       Community Action Case Study
-       Community Action Training with BC Healthy Communities
-       Visioning Training with CALP (view this workshop’s Climate Impacts Exercise worksheets (7mb pdf)

56 participants attended the Climate Action Event:  ”Big Leaps and Small Steps”, University of Northern BC (Prince George) held June 23, 2010.  A 2 page summary report of the Victoria and Prince George Climate Action Secretariat Regional Dialogue sessions has been prepared for more information on those workshops.

The last 4 visioning sessions were held in Kelowna (Sept 23), Dawson Creek, Fort St. John and Terrace (October 18-21).

For more information on this project please contact Ellen Pond or Laura Cornish at CALP.  For archived sessions, please contact the PICS office directly, e-mail: pics@uvic.ca

Funded by: BC’s Climate Action Secretariat and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS). (June – October 2010). 
Project Leader: Dr. Stephen Sheppard
CALP Researchers: Ellen Pond, Jonathan Salter, Laura Cornish

The BC Government has legislated aggressive targets for reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions  and established the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) to foster research on climate change to meeting those targets.  This research theme focuses where the science hits the ground: on outreach, engagement, and mobilisation of the public and multiple stakeholders, where climate solutions need to be implemented through behavior change, policy change and action.

• Key contextual factors:
  Pace and extent of climate change, lack of action, gaps in knowledge/behavior
• Existing efforts, eg. Live Smart BC, BC Hydro
• Urgency, both politically to support BC program for cutting carbon, and to prepare for impacts/resilience/mitigation needs

Public events to stimulate dialogue, informed research and action were held on March 10, 2010:

Lectures and Virtual Colloquium:  “Making Global Warming Unacceptable: From Perceptions to Social Action“. Multi-purpose room, Liu Centre for Global Issues, UBC ,Vancouver.   The virtual colloquium was webcast and can be viewed at http://www.socialmobilisation.pwias.ubc.ca.  Lectures and Dialogue: “New ways to communicate climate solutions”. SFU Segal Business Centre, Room 1500, 500 Granville Street, SFU, Vancouver.
These events were sponsored by PICS, Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Learning, CALP, and the Climate Action Secretariat, BCMOE.  A Summary Report from the PICS Social Mobilization Workshop is now available as well as a draft version of the Literature Scan.

For more information on the Social Mobilisation Research theme, please contact Dr. Stephen Sheppard, or the Social Mobilisation Coordinator, Shirlene Cote, cotes@interchange.ubc.ca .

Future Delta is an immersive and interactive virtual environment that acts as a tool for communication between researchers and the public. Combining climate change modeling, socioeconomic scenario analysis and 3D modeling of real places with engaging soundscapes and imagery, we aim to make climate change science and solutions more salient and understandable to people. The project brings together climate change science and multimedia interaction in the context of emerging methods of visualisation and community engagement. With dramatic multimedia expression and virtual reality, we can perhaps move towards a deeper awareness and sense of urgency, reaching people that climate science often fails to reach, and providing clear choices for feasible actions. The project comprises a virtual reality game-engine environment where audiovisual representation and science combine to display dynamic 3D visualizations of future local climate change scenarios. Through an integrated design process we are developing an interactive visualization of alternative future climate change scenarios that are focused on the the flooding risks of the Delta municipality. The project builds on a rich history of thinking, experimentation, and production in the area of climate change, but extends it into a new representational framework fostered by the communicative power of interactive multimedia expression within a virtual world design.

This immersive and interactive virtual environment will provide an active learning process of play and exploration, more like a game than a passive experience of a linear presentation. With this approach we hope to touch those people that conventional climate science often fails to reach, empowering the participant to visualize and intuitively grasp critical scientific data, using enjoyable game strategies to reach audiences across a range of age-groups, cultures, attitudes to climate change, etc, and find out how they react. We hope to raise the profile of the issue, the role of multimedia presentations as an educational tool, the science, and possible communal actions through high visibility public venues and web access.  To view the demo please visit http://futuredelta.ok.ubc.ca/demo.html

This collaborative project, employs a team of people from UBC’s Creative Studies, School of Music and The Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning with the goal to create a new synergy between disciplines that can ultimately catalyze effective communication design.  For more information on this project, contact Aleksandra Dulic, PhD, Creative Studies, UBC Okanagan, http://web.ubc.ca/okanagan/creative/faculty.html.

Digital media can help communicate sustainability issues and engage people in individual and collective solutions. How? Through mobile games on emissions reduction, landscape visualizations for regional growth choices, virtual reality decision-making tools for conservation and Facebook applications for public commitments of energy reduction. These and other examples were featured at the March 12, 2010 Demonstration Session on Digital Media and Sustainability hosted by GRAND, the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Learning (PWIAS) at the University of British Columbia.

Vancouver’s leading developers and researchers had the opportunity to present and display their proven and emerging digital media applications to an audience of international researchers, leading BC academics, policy-makers, expert practitioners on social mobilization and students. The Demo Session concluded a two day workshop on climate change communications, behaviour change and social mobilization lead by Stephen sheppard and  hosted by PICS and PWIAS.

The range of digital media applications is limitless and powerful.  Demo stations and presenters included:

Visualizations/Tools:

•    SFU West House, Sustainable Laneway Home – Lynn Bartrum
•    Pulse, Real-Time Energy Intelligence for Buildings – David Helliwell
•    Ocean Summit, Fisheries Management Visualization – Sherman Lai
•    MetroQuest, Scenario Exploration for Regional Futures – Dave Biggs
•    Visualization of Scenarios in a 3D Game Engine -  Steve Bohus
•    Precipice, Interactive Simulation of Climate Change Futures – Ryan Nadel
•    3D Visualization of Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation Scenarios in GoogleEarth for Kimberley, BC – Olaf Schroth
•    Spacial Interface Research Lab, Augmented Reality Programs – Nick Hedley
•    Social Mobilisation and Visualization on Alberta Oil Sands – Petr Cizek
•    3D Visualization of the CIRS Building – Nick Sinkewicz
•    Interface Design and Usability Studies for 3D Landscape Visualization – Jon Salter

Games/Apps:

•    Futura, Children’s Tangible Games – Alissa Antel
•    Carbon Chaos,  iPhone Game for Transit-Oriented Carbon Reduction – Dhruv Vinodrai Adhia
•    Social Signal, ‘Power the Games’ BC Hydro Facebook App – Rob Cottingam
•   Mobile Muse, Community-Oriented Mobile Content and Service – David Vogt

There is an urgent need for governments at all levels in Canada to make decisions concerning adaptation and planning strategies for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction. The magnitude of this challenge requires integrating input from multiple disciplines and the public into climate change planning.

However, there are no planning processes yet inplace that permit Canadian communities to translate global and national imperatives into:
a) practical planning and land management procedures; b) local community capacity-building and technology transfer; and c) decision-making processes that foster action on climate change adaptation and mitigation.

The proposed research addresses these challenges by developing and scientifically evaluating a new decision-support process for climate change adaptation and mitigation, based on an integrated geovisualization system. We aim to develop a prototype for improved community planning to localize, spatialize, and visualize climate change effects using downscaled climate modeling, geospatial information, and the best available land-use models. Versions of the prototype process and tools will be tested in four case study communities across Canada: in Greater Vancouver, downtown Toronto, the Bow River watershed in Alberta, and Clyde River in Nunavut.

Download a 2-page summary of the Clyder River project from January, 2011.   CALP’s latest work in Clyde River can also be seen on the ITTAQ’s website (under their Projects page).

Please contact Kristi Tatebe for more information.   Local Climate Change Project Flyer (PIV 032)

Funded by: GEOIDE Networks of Centres of Excellence (2009 – 2012)
Project Leader: Dr. Stephen Sheppard
CALP Researchers:  Kristi Tatebe, Olaf Schroth, David Flanders, Ellen Pond

With increasing impacts of climate change, provincial legislation to reduce carbon footprints, and pressures such as rising fuel costs and economic uncertainty, rural communities face many new challenges; however, they may also have significant latent capacity for adaptation, energy self-reliance, and overall resilience, if well planned.  A major problem that confronts rural communities is how to plan more effectively for such a transition, given limited resources, incomplete data on new threats/solutions, the complexity of climate change information, and the lack of proven templates for mainstreaming adaptation and mitigation into planning. This project will apply innovative visioning methods, initially tested by CALP in the Lower Mainland, to a Columbia Basin community: the City of Kimberley.
Please contact Ellen Pond for more project information.

Funded by: Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia and the City of Kimberley and BC Ministry of Community Development (2008- 2009)
Principal Investigator:  Dr. Stephen Sheppard
CALP Researchers:  Ellen Pond, Cam Campbell, Olaf Schroth, Sara Muir-Owen (PICS)

Building energy use contributes approximately 12% of the province’s current greenhouse gas emissions (BC Climate Action Plan), and significantly to municipal emissions.  Given current provincial targets of reducing proving GHGs by 80% by 2050 (mandated by Bill 44, The Greenhouse Gas Reductions Targets Act), a significant reduction in the energy use – and moves to renewable energy – are required in buildings.  While a portion of this reduction can be achieved by constructing new low-energy buildings and by replacing existing buildings during redevelopment, the aggressiveness of the provincial targets and the likely rate of redevelopment means that a substantial portion of the building GHG reductions will have to come from retrofitting existing buildings and neighbourhoods.  While there are some options that can be applied at the individual building scale (passive solar approaches, increasing insulation and the efficiency of HVAC systems), there are others such as community energy systems that are likely to be more cost-effective if implemented at the block or neighbourhood scale.

This research project aims to provide case study energy modeling for three neighbourhood types, typical of many BC communities, with two to four low energy and low GHG emissions options per neighbourhood.  The options will be linked to a benefits analysis including quantifiable costing, research into economies of scale, other co-benefits, and recommendations for policy to enable implementation.
Please contact Ellen Pond for more project information:  epond@interchange.ubc.ca

Funded by: Real Estate Institute of British Columbia (2009 – 2010)
Principal Investigator:  Dr. Stephen Sheppard
CALP Researchers:  Duncan Cavens, Ellen Pond, and Nicole Miller