Scientific Sessions
ATMOSPHERE
2010 Dynamics and Impacts of Atmospheric Rivers: Challenges and Solutions for Prediction and Risk Management
Convenors: Tamar Richards-Thomas (University of Regina), Stephen Déry (University of Northern British Columbia)
Atmospheric rivers are becoming more frequent, intense and impactful, in a warmer world, serving as major contributors to extreme weather and hydrological events. This trend highlights the need for a comprehensive and enhanced scientific understanding of these phenomena. However, the complex atmospheric-oceanic interactions that shape atmospheric river evolution, formation, and landfall can introduce considerable uncertainty in predicting their outcomes.
This session examines the dynamics, potential predictability, and emerging solutions designed to understand atmospheric river hazards. Discussions will include the dynamical mechanisms, such as large-scale circulation patterns, moisture transport processes, and orographic influences, that drive the evolution and strength of atmospheric rivers and compound the effects of natural hazards.
The prediction and risk management of atmospheric rivers present unique challenges due to their complex dynamics interconnected with hydrological responses, meteorological processes, and climate change. This session will also address the strengths and limitations of current forecasting efforts and tools, explore sources of uncertainty, and challenges in translating atmospheric predictions into actionable decision-making strategies for water management resources, flood preparedness, and hazard mitigation.
2020 Advances and applications of artificial intelligence in meteorology
Convenors: Simon-Philippe Breton, Canadian Meteorological Center, ECCC, Vikram Khade, Canadian Meteorological Center, ECCC
We invite the meteorological community to contribute to an exciting session on the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into meteorology. This session aims to explore how AI, in particular machine learning (AI/ML) and high performance computing, is revolutionising modern meteorology.
Potential topics:
•Data-driven modelling in meteorology: Examples of fully data-driven models offering new insights into the understanding of meteorological phenomena.
•Hybridization of models: Fusion of data-driven approaches and traditional physical models for more accurate and robust weather forecasting.
•AI/ML for nowcasting: Innovation in very short-term forecasting, using AI to improve the speed and accuracy of forecasts.
•Improvements in S2S forecasting: Use of innovative statistical methods and AI/ML to refine sub-seasonal to seasonal predictions.
•Operationalisation of AI/ML: Discussion on how to make AI/ML technologies more accessible and useful for daily weather forecasting and decision support.
•Ethical and responsible AI: Importance of developing and using AI ethically and responsibly in meteorological research.
•Improving AI Literacy: Encouraging AI adoption by improving AI understanding and skills within the meteorological community.
•AI/ML in data assimilation : Use of AI/ML to augment/replace components of data assimilation systems (4DVar, EnVar, Ensemble based DA etc.)
•AI/ML applications in climate and environmental sciences : Use of AI/ML in climate projections, estimation of green house gases and climate change, climate change mitigation strategies, environmental impact/adaptation, policy formulations.
•AI applications in renewable energies : Use of AI/ML to improve forecasts for renewable energies.
In order to align this session with the “Navigating Uncertainty” theme of the conference, we encourage presentations that demonstrate how artificial intelligence can be used to characterize, quantify, or manage uncertainty in the context of measurements, forecasts, and projections in meteorology and climatology. Contributions that illustrate the application of AI to monitoring, reducing, or communicating uncertainty, as well as interdisciplinary approaches—including those integrating social sciences—are welcome.
2030 Weather, Climate, and Environmental Extremes in Changing Climate
Convenors: Elizaveta Malinina, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Neil Tandon, York University, Nathan Gillett, Environment and Climate Change Canada
Extreme events in weather and climate pose significant risks to lives, ecosystems, and economies, often resulting in devastating losses and long-term impacts. Nevertheless, current knowledge of extremes and how they are evolving in a changing climate is associated with a high degree of uncertainty, often arising from short historical records, incomplete process understanding, or model biases. This session invites contributions addressing all aspects of weather and climate extremes, including but not limited to studies covering uncertainties in physical mechanisms, observations, predictions or projections of extremes, and their communication. We welcome submissions examining extremes of varying durations (from hours to months) and types, including heatwaves, wildfires, extreme precipitation, wind-related events, hydrological extremes (e.g., floods and droughts), and oceanographic extremes (e.g., storm surges, coastal flooding, and marine heatwaves). Submissions may focus on historical changes, event attribution, future projections, or any other extremes-related topic.
2040 Improving Weather Services Across the Weather Enterprise
Convenors: Blake Barber and Erik de Groot, Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC)
As Canada faces increasingly complex meteorological and climate-related risks, improving weather services has become a central priority across the Canadian weather enterprise. In alignment with the Congress theme “Navigating Uncertainty,” this session, led by the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC), will highlight ongoing efforts to improve weather services in Canada.
The session will feature MSC’s current service-modernization activities—spanning improvements in alerting, forecasting, communication, and user-centered design
Objectives
• Present MSC’s service improvement efforts within the context of a changing weather enterprise and fiscal realities
• Encourage sharing of innovative tools, services, and communication strategies that enhance the delivery of weather information.
2050 Atmosphere - Theoretical to applied science
Convenors: TBA
Related to scientific studies and/or information sharing about the atmosphere, including weather, meteorology, clouds and precipitation, air quality, atmospheric dynamic and extreme events, using various approaches.
This session covers many topics, including, but not limited to, theoretical research, model development, observation techniques, real-time monitoring, databases, diagnostic methods, data analysis and artificial intelligence.
OCEAN
3010 Coastal Oceanography and Inland Waters
Convenors: Jinyu Sheng, Dalhousie University, Susan Allen, University of British Columbia, Guoqi Han, DFO, Shiliang Shan, Royal Military College of Canada
This session will focus on all aspects of monitoring and modelling of physical and biogeochemical processes in coastal domains, shelf seas, estuaries and inland waters. Topics include but are not limited to coastal physical oceanography, storm surges, tsunamis, estuarine dynamics, hydrology and hydrodynamics of large lakes, mixing and dispersion of materials. We also invite contributions related to both observational and modelling aspects of biogeochemistry in coastal and inland waters.
The proposed session will link strongly to “3. Oceans and Ice in a Changing Climate”. We expect that papers submitted to this session will be in two main types. The first type will focus on improving our limited knowledge of physical and biogeochemical conditions over coastal and inland waters in the past and present climate. The second type will focus on predictions and examinations of changes in marine conditions over coastal and inland waters, including the Canadian Arctic waters, due to the climate change.
3020 Towards development of Canada’s Digital Twin of the Ocean: Research, Development and Work Examples
Convenors: Nancy Soontiens, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Guoqi Han, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Youyu Lu, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Hui Shen, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Di Wan, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Floris Goerlandt, Dalhousie University
Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTO) has emerged as a framework to provide a virtual representation of the real ocean for effective monitoring, predicting, and managing complex marine systems, in applications such as fishery and ecosystem protection and management, safe navigation, search and rescue, and climate change adaptation. Internationally, there are fast progresses in all aspects of DTO development, including the various activities under the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. In Canada, there is a tremendous amount of activity relevant to DTO development, including ocean observations, modelling, prediction, analyses, data management, etc. These activities spread among government departments, academia, and the private sector. To be successful in building DTO for oceans around Canada, there are imminent needs to enhance the knowledge and technology exchanges, coordination and collaboration among management and researchers in various organizations and also with the international community. To this end, this session aims to bring together national and international researchers and managers to 1) share the client needs and plans of relevant projects and activities; 2) review existing resources and challenges (data, models, technology and knowledge); 3) present achievements in research and development, and showcase examples; and 4) discuss collaboration opportunities.
3030 Discussions on development, evaluation and analysis of ocean circulation and biogeochemical models or Developing Ocean Modelling Capacity in Canada
Convenors: Paul Myers (University of Alberta), Youyu Lu (DFO - BIO), Susan Allen (University of British Columbia), Greg Smith (ECCC), David Greenberg (DFO - BIO retired), Frederic Dupont (ECCC), Juliana Marson (University of Manitoba), Inge Deschepper (University of Alberta), Tahya Weiss-Gibbons (University of Alberta)
Ocean circulation and biogeochemical models are widely used for both research and operational forecasting. However, there are challenges for small research groups to handle the increasing complexity of the model codes, evaluation with various observational datasets, and analysis of the increasing amount of model output data.
This session aims to stimulate discussions on potential coordination and collaboration between Canadian government laboratories and universities in the development, evaluation and analysis of ocean circulation and biogeochemical models for hindcast and forecast at various time scales. Specific topics may include: 1) progress of model research and applications in various regions with different spatial resolutions; 2) new evaluation and analysis results that demonstrate the strength and weakness of the models; 3) improvements in model numerics and parameterization of sub-grid processes; 4) new analysis methods; 5) new forcing and evaluation datasets; 6) model inter-comparison; and 7) data presentation and visualization tools.
3040 Ocean - Theoretical to applied science
Convenor: Jared Penneym, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Related to scientific studies and/or information sharing about the ocean, including studies in physical, chemical, and biological oceanography, ocean waves and storm surge using various approaches.
This session covers many topics, including, but not limited to, theoretical research, model development, observation techniques, real-time monitoring, databases, diagnostic methods, data analysis and artificial intelligence.
CLIMATE
4010 Climate variability and predictability
Convenors: Hai Lin, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Bin Yu, Environment and Climate Change Canada
This session invites contributions that deal with climate variability and predictions on subseasonal, seasonal, interannual and decadal-interdecadal time scales. Contributions are solicited on topics including studies of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) and tropical waves, El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), atmospheric circulation patterns, tropical-extratropical-polar interactions and teleconnections, and impacts of these processes on predictability and predictions. Equally welcome are contributions on extended- and long-range weather forecasts, and predictions of climate variability on various time scales, including ensemble and initialization techniques, model development, forecast skill assessment, downscaling and calibration, and end-user value and applications. Results from diagnostic, modelling, model inter-comparison, and theoretical approaches are all welcome.
4020 Regional scaling of climate projections: robustness, credibility, and criteria for selecting available
Convenors: Dominique Paquin (Ouranos), Martin Leduc (Ouranos)
Regional climate projections are essential for assessing the impacts of climate change in various sectors, including hydrology, agriculture, health, and infrastructure. Methods for downscaling global climate projections can be divided into dynamic and statistical downscaling. Dynamic downscaling includes regional climate models, while statistical downscaling encompasses a range of approaches, from simple climatological bias correction to advanced methods involving artificial intelligence.
This multiplicity of sources of regional climate simulations and the complexity of the methodologies used to produce them can sometimes leave users bewildered, unable to grasp the advantages and limitations of the different products available for their intended application. This raises many questions: How can regional downscaling be properly evaluated and the best data source selected for a given type of application? Can a confidence or robustness index be associated with projected trends? As a user, how do you decide which product to employ? Are the datasets equivalent? What should you do if they diverge? As a data producer, how can you guide users in making these choices?
This session aims to bring together studies and applications using regional climate data, whether based on regional climate model (RCM) projections, global climate model (GCM) projections, or regional projections scaled using conventional statistical methods or artificial intelligence-based emulators. We invite people to present studies that assess the quality and credibility of regional projections and highlight the advantages and limitations of the data, as well as selection criteria based on applications.
4030 Applications of regional climate modeling
Convenors: Dominique Paquin (Ouranos), Alejandro Di Luca (UQAM)
Over the past few years, the development of regional climate models (RCMs) has focused on various aspects such as increasing spatial resolution, integrating more sophisticated physical parameterizations, and using improved geophysical fields. Whether by reaching resolutions that allow the partial simulation of convection (convection-permitting RCMs), by incorporating advanced schemes (surface, microphysics, etc.), or by using new databases as input variables or for evaluation purposes, the models currently in use have undergone profound transformations.
This session welcomes contributions on recent developments in RCMs or on the analysis of regional climate simulations. Submissions focusing on methodological advances, innovative applications of regional models, and their evaluation are particularly encouraged
4040 Collaborative Earth System Modelling in Canada
Convenors: Michael Morris, University of Toronto, Paul J. Kushner, University of Toronto, Neil Swart, Environment and Climate Change Canada
Earth System Models (ESMs) are the principal tools used to understand and attribute past climate changes, to make projections of future climate, and to carry out near-term environmental predictions. The Canadian research community pursues collaborative research with ESMs across many domains, from the perspective of atmosphere/ocean science, cryospheric science, carbon-cycle science, and research related to land surface and hydrological processes. This collaborative research occurs within Canada and internationally, within government and academic settings, and within academic-government partnerships. Whatever the setting, the complexity and technical challenges associated with ESMs pose barriers to their development, application, and analysis without formal collaborative structures and advanced technical tools to facilitate their use. New technologies, including machine-learning and novel data-science approaches, advanced version control systems, reproducible runtime environments (containers), community analysis packages, and common computing resources are affording new collaborative opportunities from development to analysis to application. This session invites submissions on Earth System Models and modelling applications taking place in Canada, ranging from model descriptions through to applications and analysis procedures, across many earth system science domains that are unified by their use of ESMs and could be enhanced by stronger collaborative partnerships. Areas of interest include atmospheric/ocean model process and parameterization development (including sea-ice modelling), short-lived climate forcers and geoengineering/climate intervention, carbon cycle modelling (including climate change mitigation approaches such as atmospheric carbon dioxide removal), land-surface model development and application, and sea-ice/land-ice modelling. We invite submissions covering the modelling environment within Canada (including CanESM, the UVic ESM, GEM-NEMO, CanRCM, CRCM, etc.) and internationally (including CESM, WRF, CliMA, etc.). We seek to continue the discussion concerning challenges and opportunities for collaboration between universities, government laboratories, and the private sector; and the scientific results emerging from such collaborations.
4060 Climate services and the confidence-confusion chasm
Convenors: Megan Hartwell, Canadian Centre for Climate Services, ECCC, Trevor Murdock, Canadian Centre for Climate Services, ECCC
Climate services operate at the interface between climate science and real-world decision making. Climate service providers endeavour to communicate relevant climate information to decision makers, while also communicating the limitations of the information, the uncertainty in the data and its applications. The inherit and unavoidable uncertainty in climate projections makes it tempting to either oversimplify the information or to include everything causing info overload. Climate services plays the vital role of bridging the chasm between confidence and confusion.
Demand is at an all-time high for reliable and usable climate data, information and guidance in ways that are relevant and usable to potential users. This is driven by an increase in the explicit consideration of future climate in many activities such as climate risk disclosures; assessments of climate impacts, vulnerabilities, and risks; adaptation plans; and consideration of future climate in disaster risk reduction.
The goal of this session is to encourage those in the climate field to share their experiences in creating and communicating robust, tailored climate information, data products, and guidance, for delivery to practitioners, researchers, and local communities. We also welcome users of climate information and climate data to share their experiences and findings, highlight how climate service providers have met or not met their needs, and identify ways in which climate services offerings could be expanded to improve their ability to build resilience to a changing climate.
Relevant topics for this session could include:
- Climate information development
- User needs engagement and analysis
- Deployment of platforms providing climate information
- Co-production of datasets and tools with practitioners and climate scientists
- Translation of technical climate information into a usable format
- Examples of successful application of climate information, particularly for climate change adaptation
4070 Canada’s Changing Climate Report 2026: findings from the new national climate science assessment.
Convenors: Chris Derksen, Climate Research Division, ECCC, Elizabeth Bush, Climate Research Division, ECCC
The first edition of Canada’s Changing Climate Report, released in 2019, was the first comprehensive national science assessment of past and future changes in cIimate in Canada. This session will provide a forum for presenting findings from the second edition of Canada’s Changing Climate Report, planned for release in May 2026. In a world of rapid climate change and with a rapid expansion in the amount of published scientific research on climate change in Canada, up-to-date syntheses and assessments of this scientific knowledge are important for both informing action on climate change and for generating a collective understanding of the problem. Canada’s Changing Climate Report 2026 is the outcome of a major, collaborative, multi-year assessment process designed to provide timely, robust evidence about both past and future changes in climate in Canada. This edition draws primarily on new science produced by the Canadian research community and is informed by new observations, improved datasets, a better understanding of the climate system, and new modelling of future changes in climate across Canada since the first edition released in 2019. The content of CCCR2026 also reflects an intention to include more topics that are important to Canadians and people living in Canada, to make the report more accessible to a variety of audiences, and to better bridge the gap between scientific assessments and adaptation planning. This session will include presentations directly based on assessment material and we invite other relevant submissions.
4080 Climate - Theoretical to applied science
Convenors: TBA
Related to scientific studies and/or information sharing about the climate, including studies on slowly varying aspects of the Earth’s systems, as well as past and future conditions, using various approaches.
This session covers many topics, including, but not limited to, theoretical research, model development, databases, diagnostic methods, climate projections, data analysis and artificial intelligence.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY
5010 Ocean-Sea Ice-Atmosphere Interactions and Dynamics in the Changing Arctic and Sub-Arctic Seas
Convenors: Yarisbel Garcia Quintana (University of Toronto Mississauga), Kent Moore (University of Toronto Mississauga), Paul G. Myers (University of Alberta), Stephen Howell (ECCC)
Global warming is amplified by a factor of four in the Arctic, driving a rapid and unprecedented transformation of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Seas. Declining sea-ice extent and thickness, increased freshwater input, and enhanced Atlantic Water inflow are reshaping the physical and biogeochemical state of these regions. Sea ice, as both a driver and an indicator of change, integrates complex thermodynamic and dynamic processes that couple the ocean, atmosphere, and cryosphere. Its evolution modulates feedbacks across the system, influencing ocean circulation, stratification, vertical mixing, and the exchange of heat, moisture, and momentum between the ocean and the atmosphere.
These interconnected processes have cascading impacts on marine ecosystems, biogeochemical cycling, and climate feedbacks, as well as on northern communities whose livelihoods and cultural practices are closely tied to sea-ice and ocean conditions. Understanding how the coupled ocean-sea-ice-atmosphere system is responding to and amplifying global change remains a critical scientific and societal challenge.
This session welcomes contributions that explore physical and biogeochemical oceanographic processes in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Seas using observational, remote-sensing, modelling, and community-based approaches. Topics include (but are not limited to) Atlantic Water pathways, freshwater and heat budgets, land-ice-ocean interactions, sea-ice and polynya dynamics, coastal and open-ocean circulation, and atmosphere-ocean coupling. Cross-disciplinary studies linking ocean processes with the cryosphere, atmosphere, ecosystems, or Indigenous and local knowledge are especially encouraged.
By fostering discussion across disciplines, this session aims to advance our understanding of the processes shaping the rapidly changing Arctic system and to strengthen collaborations that inform sustainable futures in northern regions.
5030 Atmosphere, Ocean, and Climate Dynamics
Convenors: Michael Waite (University of Waterloo), Adam Monahan (University of Victoria), Ron McTaggart-Cowan (ECCC), Marek Stastna (University of Waterloo)
This session combines submissions that document studies of the dynamics of the atmosphere, oceans and/or climate system. The scope of the session is deliberately broad in order to include research that spans the full range of spatial and temporal scales. Studies of the dynamics of mesoscale processes that act on hourly timescales are as welcome in this session as those that document the evolution of planetary-scale structures in a changing climate. Such investigations may include theoretical, diagnostic and modelling studies that employ the latest analytic and prediction techniques, including those based on machine learning. However, any topic that is relevant to atmosphere, ocean, or climate dynamics will fit well into this session.
5040 Satellite Earth Observations for understanding atmospheric composition and fluxes
Convenors: Debora Griffin (Environment and Climate Change Canada), Chris McLinden (Environment and Climate Change Canada), Mark Gordon (York University)
Satellite Earth Observations (SEO) have significantly advanced the monitoring, assessment, and prediction of changes in the ozone layer, atmospheric composition, air quality, and emission fluxes. With new geostationary sensors now complementing established low-Earth orbit (LEO) missions, unprecedented spatial and temporal coverage is now available for studying atmospheric processes.
This session invites contributions that use SEO data from existing GEO and LEO satellite missions, as well as future constellation concepts to further our understanding of atmospheric composition and fluxes. We welcome research on algorithm development, flux estimates including natural and anthropogenic emissions, assimilation of SEO in prediction systems, trends, and validation across all spectral regions and viewing geometries focusing on greenhouse gases, pollutants, and aerosols. We also encourage studies that apply machine learning or hybrid physical-ML approaches to enhance satellite retrievals, quantify emissions, or characterize surface concentrations.
5050 Satellite Earth Observation: A unique view of our planet and a critical need for navigating our future
Convenors: Kaley Walker, University of Toronto, Adam Bourassa, University of Saskatchewan
Satellite Earth observation (SEO) provides a unique global perspective on our planet's atmosphere and surface, including the oceans, land, vegetation, ice, and snow. Current and planned satellite missions from Canada and international agencies have provided and will provide a wealth of new information about the Earth system and that can be used to investigate a wide range of environmental and scientific questions.
This session encourages contributions from across the full SEO value chain, upstream, midstream and downstream, to illustrate the activities currently underway in Canada, involving industry, academia and government. This includes new measurement technologies and techniques, both passive and active; mission development; retrieval algorithms; demonstration and calibration of instruments; validation of satellite products; assimilation of data into numerical models; scientific results and discoveries; operational utilization and development of services.
5060 Hydrological Change in Canada: Impacts on Water Quantity, Quality and Aquatic Ecology
Convenors: Daniel L. Peters, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Yonas B. Dibike, Environment and Climate Change Canada
Water bodies across Canada - including wetlands, lakes, and rivers - are undergoing significant and complex change/shifts in hydrology, geochemistry, and aquatic ecology due to accelerating climate change, land-use alterations, and increasing anthropogenic pressures. These changes are affecting the timing and quantity of water availability, water quality, and the overall health and functioning of aquatic ecosystems.
Canadian hydrological systems are strongly shaped by temperature-dependent processes. The formation, growth, and ablation of seasonal snow and ice cover regulate the timing, duration, and magnitude of streamflow and water levels. For instance, ice-jam induced high water levels often represent the extreme end of flood magnitude and dynamics; thus, underscoring the need to explicitly analyze both ice-affected and open-water conditions when assessing hydrological change. Moreover, the timing and rate of the spring snow/ice melt exert a major influence on subsequent flows, levels and the overall hydrological response of a system. The hydrology is also closely linked to water quality and aquatic ecology, which respond to these temperature-driven changes in interconnected ways.
The goal of this session is to bring together scientists engaged in the assessment and modelling of climate- and natural resource development-driven changes in flow and water level regimes across Canada. By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, we aim to advance the data, models and research needed to guide effective mitigation and adaptation strategies, ensure sustainable water resources, and support environmental flow frameworks that restore and protect riverine and floodplain ecosystems.
Topics of interest include: Cold-regions hydrology in rivers, lakes, and wetlands; Extreme hydrological events, including ice-jam and open-water floods, as well as droughts; Relationships between hydrology, water quality and aquatic ecosystems; Water management strategies for environmental flows, ecosystem restoration, and anthropogenic uses (eg, hydropower generation, resource extraction).
5070 Managing Hydrometeorological Risks in an Uncertain World
Convenors: Philippe Gachon & Bernard Motulsky, University of Québec in Montréal, Claude Masse & Johanne St-Cœur, Meteorological Service of Canada, ECCC, Jacques Lavigne, Améthyste communications
Our planet’s climate system is approaching a critical and potentially irreversible tipping point due to the continuous rise in greenhouse gas concentrations. Yet, this evolution unfolds within pervasive uncertainty: uncertainty about the magnitude and speed of changes, their cascading impacts on natural and human systems, and society’s adaptive capacity. Recent decades and years have seen accelerated warming, particularly in Arctic and subarctic regions such as Canada, accompanied by increasingly occurrence and intense hydrometeorological extremes and hazards. These hazards interact with demographic growth and economic development, amplifying vulnerabilities and exposures in unpredictable ways.
To tackle these complex issues and turning uncertainty into opportunity to work under crossed disciplines and breaking silos, various research networks have been developed, as the RIISQ (InterSectoral Flood Network of Québec), both in Canada and abroad. Then, this session is an excellent opportunity to bring together various experiences and expertise, and invites contributions addressing key issues in climate risk management, namely:
• Characterization and predictability of hydrometeorological hazards under uncertainty
• Strategies to reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience
• Governance and risk management frameworks adaptable to evolving scenarios and disruptive climate futures
· Risk communication and stakeholder engagement in uncertain contexts
5080 Bolstering Resilience in Uncertain Times
Convenors: Caroline Floyd, CatIQ, Laura Twidle, CatIQ
Canadian catastrophes are on the rise. Each year, the insured cost of severe weather events in Canada tops 2 billion dollars - sometimes much more - as homeowners and businesses face damage from hail, flood, wind, and fire. The overall economic toll, encompassing items such as lost business revenue, un- or underinsured property, and damage to infrastructure - is significantly larger, and significantly harder to quantify.
Attempting to bend down the risk curve for Canadians is a difficult proposition, with underlying difficulties in data availability and collection, inconsistent support from governments, and the challenge of motivating a broad social change against the backdrop of uncertain future conditions. Asking people and communities to protect themselves from a flood that is certain to occur tomorrow may be relatively straightforward; asking them to prepare for a 1-in-100 storm may engender a very different response. Changing trends in extreme weather both exacerbate that issue and make it even more pressing to address.
This session will welcome speakers working in the risk and resilience space, with an emphasis on applied and social science. Topics we hope to explore include mapping natural perils in Canada; what do we know (and not know) about climate change’s impacts on exposure of the built environment to hail, wildfire, and flood? How are the economic impacts of ‘natural disasters’ changing with time? What avenues are available to both mitigate risks, and protect the natural environment? What links are there between vulnerable populations and increased risks? And how can we advocate for governments, communities, and individuals to steps to take to mitigate their own risk(s) when there is inherent uncertainty in forecasts and climate outlooks?
5090 Multidisciplinary - Theoretical to applied science
Convenors: TBA
Related to multidisciplinary environmental studies and/or information sharing , which includes, but not limited to Arctic studies, wildfire fires, hydrology, and cryology using various approaches.
This session covers all studies related to environmental topics that are not addressed in the atmosphere, ocean, and climate sessions. For example, all models other than atmospheric, ocean, and climate models.
5100 Multidisciplinary- Community, Service and Education
Convenor: André Giguère
Related to multidisciplinary environmental studies and/or information sharing , which includes, but not limited to Arctic studies, wildfire fires, hydrology, and cryology using various approaches.
This session covers many topics, including but not limited to education, community science and data collection, data dissemination, and other activities as well as all environmental topics that are not addressed in the atmosphere, ocean, and climate sessions