Congress Themes
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Risks and Impacts of Climate Change on the Resilience of Major Sectors
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Tornadoes and Other Extreme Weather Events Impacting Canadians
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Oceans and Ice in a Changing Climate
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Floods and Water Crises in Canada and Globally
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Impacts of A Changing Climate in the Arctic
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Climate-Weather-Water and Food
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Pollution of the Air, Water and Ecosystems
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The Cryosphere – Impacts Locally to Globally
Overview of Sessions
|
Session |
Session Title |
Co-convenors |
Affiliation/Address |
Theme(s) |
|
1 |
Flood Prediction, Analysis, and Management Under Climate Change |
Wang Xiuquan |
Xiuquan (Xander) Wang, Ph.D., P.Eng. |
1, 4 |
|
2 |
Dominique Brunet Gabrielle Gascon Eva Mekis |
Dominique Brunet (Environment and Climate Change Canada) - dominique.brunet@canada.ca Gabrielle Gascon (Environment and Climate Change Canada) - gabrielle.gascon@canada.ca Eva Mekis (Environment and Climate Change Canada) - eva.mekis@canada.ca |
1, 5 |
|
|
3 |
Ron McTaggart-Cowan Marek Stastna Michael Waite Adam Monahan |
Ron McTaggart-Cowan (Environment and Climate Change Canada) - ron.mctaggart-cowan@canada.ca Marek Stastna (University of Waterloo) - mmstastna@uwaterloo.ca Michael Waite (University of Waterloo) - mwaite@uwaterloo.ca Adam Monahan (University of Victoria) - monahana@uvic.ca |
2, 3, 5, 8 |
|
|
4 |
David Sills |
David Sills |
2 |
|
|
5 |
Gregory Kopp |
Gregory Kopp |
2 |
|
|
6 |
Richard Peltier |
Richard Peltier |
1, 3, 4, 5, 8 |
|
|
7 |
Sébastien Biner Dominique Paquin |
Sébastien Biner (Ouranos) - biner.sebastien@ouranos.ca Dominique Paquin (Ouranos) - paquin.dominique@ouranos.ca |
1, 2 |
|
|
8 |
Paul Kushner Chris Fletcher Rebecca Saari Nathan Gillett Neil Swart Kirsten Zickfeld |
Paul Kushner (University of Toronto) - paul.kushner@utoronto.ca Chris Fletcher (University of Waterloo) - chris.fletcher@waterloo.ca Rebecca Saari (University of Waterloo) - rebecca.saari@uwaterloo.ca Nathan Gillett (Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, ECCC) - nathan.gillett@canada.ca Neil Swart (Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, ECCC) - neil.swart@canada.ca Kirsten Zickfeld (Simon Fraser University) - kzickfel@sfu.ca |
1, 5 |
|
|
9 |
Len Zedel David Barclay |
Len Zedel (Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography) - zedel@mun.ca David Barclay (Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University) - dbarclay@dal.ca |
5, 7 |
|
|
10 |
Shannon Brown Elizabeth Pattey Ward Smith Alexander Moravek |
Shannon Brown (University of Guelph) - sbrown06@uoguelph.ca Elizabeth Pattey (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) - elizabeth.pattey@canada.ca Ward Smith (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) - ward.smith@canada.ca Alexander Moravek (York University) - amoravek@yorku.ca |
1, 5, 6, 7 |
|
|
11 |
Catherine Champagne Aston Chipanshi |
Catherine Champagne (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) - catherine.champagne@canada.ca Aston Chipanshi (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) - aston.chipanshi@canada.ca |
6 |
|
|
12 |
James Drummond Kimberly Strong |
James Drummond (Dalhousie University) - james.drummond@dal.ca Kimberly Strong (University of Toronto) - strong@atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca |
3, 5, 6, 7, 8 |
|
|
13 |
Hai Lin Bin Yu |
Hai Lin (Meteorological Research Division, ECCC) - hai.lin@canada.ca Bin Yu (Climate Research Division, ECCC) - bin.yu@canada.ca |
2, 3, 4, 5, 8 |
|
|
14 |
Advances in Oceanographic Sensors, Instruments, Platforms, and Observing Systems |
Mark Halverson Mathieu Dever Steve Mihály |
Mark Halverson (RBR) - mark.halverson@rbr-global.com Mathieu Dever (RBR/ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) - mdever@whoi.edu Steve Mihály (Ocean Networks Canada) - smihaly@uvic.ca |
3, 5 |
|
15 |
Building Resiliency in Health and Environment in a Changing Climate |
Melissa MacDonald Cara Patton Céline Audette |
Melissa MacDonald |
1 |
|
16 |
John Falkingham |
John Falkingham |
3, 5, 8 |
|
|
17 |
MEOPAR 1: Impacts of Climate Extremes on Indigenous Communities |
Eric Oliver Sofia Darmaraki Jennifer Jackson 4th session convener - to be confirmed |
Eric Oliver (MEOPAR Network, Dalhousie University ) - eric.oliver@dal.ca Sofia Darmaraki (MEOPAR Network, Dalhousie University) - sofia.darmaraki@dal.ca Jennifer Jackson (Hakai Institute) - jennifer.jackson@hakai.org |
1, 5 |
|
18 |
MEOPAR 2: Coastal & Shoreline Community Resilience: Adaptation of coastal communities in Canada to extreme weather events and climate change |
Sebastian Weissenberger Omer Chouinard Tereza Jarnikova Bradley May |
Sebastian Weissenberger (MEOPAR Network, Université TÉLUQ) - sebastian.weissenberger@teluq.ca Omer Chouinard (MEOPAR Network, University of Moncton) - omer.chouinard@umoncton.ca Tereza Jarnikova (MEOPAR Network, University of British Columbia) - tjarniko@eoas.ubc.ca Bradley May (MEOPAR Network, Brock University) - bmay@brocku.ca |
1, 2, 4 |
|
19 |
MEOPAR 3: Ocean-Sea Ice Interaction in a Changing Climate: Environmental and Societal Impacts |
Angela Cheng Rachel Kim Andrea Nesdoly Chengzhu (William) Xu |
Angela Cheng (Canadian Ice Service, ECCC, MEOPAR Network, McGill University) - angela.cheng@canada.ca Rachel Kim (MEOPAR Network, McGill University) - rachel.h.kim@mail.mcgill.ca Andrea Nesdoly (MEOPAR Network, University of Victoria) - andreanesdoly@gmail.com Chengzhu (William) Xu (MEOPAR Network, University of Calgary) - chengzhu.xu@ucalgary.ca |
3 |
|
20 |
Christopher Subich Kris Rowe |
Christopher Subich (Environment and Climate Change Canada) - csubich@gmail.com Kris Rowe (Argonne Leadership Computing Facility) - krowe@anl.gov |
3, 5, 7, 8 |
|
|
21 |
Climate Change Information supporting Resilient Infrastructure |
Xuebin Zhang Co-conveners from NRC Industrial sector to be confirmed |
Xuebin Zhang (Climate Research Division, ECCC) - xuebin.zhang@canada.ca |
1 |
|
22 |
Lawrence Mudryk Stephan Gruber Jennifer Lukovich Stephen Howell |
Lawrence Mudryk (Environment and Climate Change Canada) - lawrence.mudryk@canada.ca Stephan Gruber (Carleton University) - stephan.gruber@carleton.ca Jennifer Lukovich (University of Manitoba) - jennifer.lukovich@umanitoba.ca Stephen Howell (Environment and Climate Change Canada) - stephen.howell@canada.ca |
8 |
|
|
23 |
Laura Van Vliet Caio Ruman |
Laura Van Vliet (School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria) - vanvliet.lvv@gmail.com Caio Ruman (Climate Change and Sustainable Engineering and Design Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, McGill University) - caioruman@gmail.com |
1 |
|
|
24 |
Ken Macdonald Serge Desjardins |
Ken Macdonald (Meteorological Service of Canada, ECCC) - ken.macdonald2@canada.ca Serge Desjardins (Meteorological Service of Canada, ECCC) - serge.desjardins@canada.ca |
1, 2, 4 |
|
|
25 |
David Fissel Helen Joseph |
David Fissel (Chair, CMOS Arctic Special Interest Group (SIG) and ASL Environmental Sciences Inc) - dfissel@aslenv.com Helen Joseph (Past-Chair, CMOS Arctic Special Interest Group (SIG) and HCJ Consulting) - helen@hcjconsulting.ca |
8 |
|
|
26 |
The 2018 Dunrobin Tornado: Creating a nexus between physical science & social experiences |
Jenniefer Spinney |
Jennifer Spinney, PhD |
2 |
|
27 |
Saber Moazami Farshad Jalili Melika Rahimi Mohammad Reza Najafi |
Saber Moazami - smoazam3@uwo.ca Farshad Jalili - fjalilip@uwo.ca Melika Rahimi - mrahimim@uwo.ca Mohammad Reza Najafi - mnajafi7@uwo.ca |
4 |
|
|
28 |
James Voogt Scott Krayenhoff |
James Voogt (Department of Geography, Western University) - javoogt@uwo.ca Scott Krayenhoff (School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph) - skrayenh@uoguelph.ca |
1 |
|
|
29 |
Homa Kheyrollah Pour Shawn Marshall |
Homa Kheyrollah Pour (Wilfrid Laurier University) - hpour@wlu.ca Shawn Marshall (University of Calgary and ECCC) - shawn.marshall@canada.ca |
8 |
|
|
30 |
Ocean and Large Lake Observing Systems and Operational Oceanography: Generating Two Way Synergy |
Fraser Davidson Richard Dewey |
Fraser Davidson Richard Dewey |
3 |
|
31 |
General - Meteorology |
To be determined |
||
|
32 |
General - Oceanography |
To be determined |
||
|
33 |
General - Climate |
To be determined |
||
|
34 |
General - Hydrology |
To be determined |
||
|
35 |
General – Interdisciplinary and other |
To be determined |
||
|
36 |
Jinyu Sheng |
Jinyu Sheng - Jinyu.Sheng@DAl.CA Guoqi Han - guoqi.han@dfo-mpo.gc.ca Ram Yerubandi - ream.yeromandi@canada.ca |
1, 3, 4 |
Session Descriptions
S1. Flood Prediction, Analysis, and Management Under Climate Change
Lead: Xander Wang
Global warming can intensify the hydrological cycle and lead to more frequent and intense precipitation events around the world. This has become a serious issue for many communities where unprecedented floods due to heavy precipitation have been frequently observed in recent years. How to increase our resilience to floods caused by heavy precipitation under climate change has become one of the major challenges for decision makers, planners, and engineering practitioners. Therefore, this session will be proposed to call for recent research advances and technological development in flood prediction, analysis, and management under climate change. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, flooding dynamics under heavy precipitation, projections of extreme precipitation events under climate change, real-time and long-term flood prediction, flood risk assessment, flood resilience to climate change, and flood emergency management.
S2. Precipitation Observations in the Arctic
Lead: Dominique Brunet
Despite advances in ground-based and remotely sensed monitoring instruments and technology, observing precipitations in the Arctic remains challenging because of the remoteness of observing sites and harsh environmental conditions in the region. In a changing climate, it is important to properly assess changes in precipitation patterns and their impact on the hydrological cycle, e.g. flood, drought, impact on agriculture and impact on ecosystems. This session intends to bring together scientists interested in classic and emerging methods for observing precipitations in the Arctic with hydrologists, climatologists and other precipitation data users. Subjects of interest include the use of remote sensing for measuring precipitation (ground and space-based, active or passive), measurement of solid precipitation and determination of precipitation type, deployment of surface precipitation sensors in the North, and analysis of precipitation data.
S3. Atmosphere, Ocean, and Climate Dynamics
Lead: Ron McTaggart-Cowan
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 a broad 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 diagnoses and theoretical studies of forecast, climate, and process models, or studies based on reanalysis and other observational datasets; however, any topic that is relevant to atmosphere, ocean, or climate dynamics will fit well into this session.
S4. The 2018 Ottawa-Area Tornado Outbreak
Lead: David Sills
On September 21st, 2018, a late-season tornado outbreak struck the Ottawa area and surrounding regions in Ontario and Quebec. Seven supercell tornadoes caused up to EF3 damage resulting in over $300M in insured losses. Post-event surveys by ground teams with drones, and subsequent analysis using high-resolution satellite and aircraft aerial data, have resulted in what is likely the most well-documented tornado outbreak in Canadian history. This session welcomes multi-disciplinary contributions that will explore various aspects of the event. There will be an invited talk by an Ottawa-area emergency responder who worked that day.
S5. Exploring Northern Tornadoes
Lead: Gregory Kopp
Much of the world’s research on tornadoes has been done in the United States, and even then has been focused mainly in the southern parts of that country. However, recent studies in Europe and Canada documenting and characterizing ‘northern’ tornadoes have raised awareness in both communities about the tornado risk that has gone under-appreciated for many years. This session welcomes contributions on northern tornadoes and the research undertaken to study them, including new techniques and sources of data. It will include an invited presentation by a representative from the European Severe Storms Laboratory, the institution where most European research on tornadoes has been undertaken.
S6. Extreme Events in the Coupled Climate System
Lead: W. Richard Peltier
Both in the modern context of continued global warming of the lower atmosphere and in the context of episodes of climate system warming in the distant past, extreme events have accompanied adjustments to the operation of the Earth System. Under modern conditions, extreme precipitation events have become increasingly common and more extreme in their impacts globally through the flooding of human settlements. Similarly, heat waves and their impact upon wild fire frequency and severity exact a mounting toll on both the built and natural environments. These effects and others associated with biological diversity that may be equally extreme in terms of species extinction are hallmarks of a system in transition from a relatively stable and equable Holocene climate that persisted for thousands of years into an anthropocene characterized by significant temperature increase.
During the evolution of Earth out of the last ice-age into the Holocene interglacial, extreme events also accompanied this transition from extreme cold into a state of Holocene warmth. These were of similar import but, interestingly, were much more deeply connected to the global ocean circulation than with the atmosphere and its water cycle. These events included the Dansgaard-Oeschger oscillations and parent Heinrich events of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3) during a period of maximum continental ice cover. During the deglaciation event that followed, there occurred the Bolling-Allerod warming event during which global sea level rose by as much as 30 m on global average. This was followed by the Younger-Dryas cold reversal which began 12,800 years ago and which returned the system to glacial conditions for 1000 years. Immediately following this event. North Africa was green but by approximately 4000 years ago the Sahara was rapidly desertified and severe impacts were felt on the human settlements that were developing in the eastern Mediterranean and the Levant as modern agriculture was emerging.
S7. Actual Climatology and Anticipated Changes in Winter Precipitation (solid, mixed and liquid) and Hail and their Impacts.
Lead: Sébastien Biner
Both solid (snow, hail, sleet) and mixed (rain on snow, freezing rain) precipitation can have significant impacts on Canadian society. Direct impacts, such as transport disruptions during snowstorms, freezing rain events, or hail damages, are clear and understandable. However, numerous indirect impacts, such as effects of changing snow density or weight during rain on snow events, or effects of decreasing snow cover on various processes, are possible but are more difficult to evaluate. Nonetheless, both types of impacts may see their frequency, intensity, location, and duration altered by climate change.
This session focuses on understanding current conditions, as well as the anticipated changes, in solid and mixed precipitation events, both in terms of their representation in climate models and in terms of their societal impacts. The aim is to improve the current state of knowledge of solid and mixed precipitation events, as well as help planning efforts necessary to build a more resilient society.
We therefore invite researchers having evaluated the ability of models to represent these phenomena to submit an abstract to this session. We would also extend invitations to studies having examined the repercussions of particular events on society in general (or for specific sectors). Lastly, presentations examining anticipated changes in these phenomena on Canadian territory and in their associated current and future adaptation methods are also welcome.
- Risks and Impacts of Climate Change on the Resilience of Major Sectors
- Tornadoes and Other Extreme Weather Events Impacting Canadians
- Impacts of A Changing Climate in the Arctic
- The Cryosphere – Impacts Locally to Globally
S8. Earth System Models as Tools for Societal Resilience
Lead: Paul Kushner
In order to provide reliable and robust assessment of future impacts of climate change, realistic and quality controlled Earth System Models are required. Each generation of Earth System Models, including components that simulate the physical (atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere), biological (vegetation, carbon cycle and other biogeochemical cycles), and human systems (industrial, agricultural, built environment, and socioeconomic systems), along with the processes that link these components, has provided new insights into the workings of the Earth System and societal interactions with it. These tools have provided our primary means to assess the Earth System’s state and fate under historic and projected anthropogenic climate change. Thus, advancing models of the Earth System and its interactions with society is crucial to building resilience to global warming and the related impacts of climate change.
S9. Acoustical Oceanography and Underwater Sound
Lead: Len Zedel
Acoustic techniques are the primary means of underwater communication and remote sensing. The focus of this session is to highlight the roles of acoustic methods, measurements, and monitoring in all aspects of oceanography and marine sciences. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to: sonar, bio- acoustics, passive acoustic monitoring, fisheries acoustics, geophysical applications, acoustic communication, defence applications, ambient and ocean noise, anthropogenic noise, long-range propagation, tomography, high-frequency scattering, imaging, and quantitative inversion. These methods provide essential tools and data required to build resilient ocean industries and coastal communities.
S10. CSAFM1: Measuring and simulating the impact of land-atmosphere interactions in a changing world and developing methodological guidelines
Lead: Shannon Brown
Physical and biological land surface properties affect exchanges of energy, water, particles, and greenhouse gases with the atmosphere. Thus, interactions between the land surface and atmosphere represent a key component of the climate system. Land-atmosphere interactions are sensitive to human activities such as management and land use and cover change, along with climate variation induced- disturbance as well as longer term shifts caused by climate change in vegetation composition. Observational, experimental and modelling studies can improve our understanding of land-atmosphere interactions. For example, eddy covariance measurements of fluxes of energy and matter help constrain flux dynamics across multiple time scales from hours to years. Ecosystem models and land surface schemes provide powerful tools to explore biophysical and biogeochemical processes underlying land- atmosphere interactions. This session highlights innovative research of all aspects of land-atmosphere interactions, measurements and monitoring and development of guidelines and standards for measuring and simulating the impact of climate variations on managed vegetated areas.
S11. CSAFM2: Understanding past, present and future effects of climate on agriculture, forestry and water resources
Lead: Catherine Champagne
This session focuses on understanding relationships between climate and land based resource sectors such as agriculture, forestry and water in order to ensure the resiliency of these sectors. We invite contributions that expand our knowledge base on how we can use past, present and future climates to better adapt and reduce costs associated with climate change, variability and extreme events. We encourage submissions related (but not limited to) any of the following sub-themes:
- Exploring productivity limitations under different climatic
- Integrating climate extremes in ecosystem
- Mainstreaming climate information in resource based
- Trend, magnitude, frequency and severity analysis of sector specific climate indices under the past, present and future climate
- Empirical/process-based methods for estimating climate variability impacts on ecosystems across multiple spatial-temporal
- Translating weather forecasts into useful decision support tools for natural resource
- Remote sensing applications in land surface meteorology, agriculture and forestry
Modelling or measurement-based studies from the following sciences and fields are encouraged: agriculture, forestry, remote sensing, hydrology, climatology, geography, insurance, transportation, energy, actuary and media.
S12. The Changing Arctic Atmosphere
Lead: James Drummond
The Arctic Atmosphere is changing rapidly due to many influences: changing composition, changing sea- ice, changing interactions with lower latitudes, and changing inputs from the land, snow, ice and oceans.
The Arctic region is known to be fragile and small changes in these inputs can have large effects and can be amplified strongly through feedback mechanisms. At the same time, the annual polar light/dark cycle instead of the daily cycle means that the atmosphere reacts differently to changes than does the atmosphere at lower latitudes. And making measurements is difficult because of the harsh environment and sparse measurement locations.
However understanding the changing Arctic atmosphere during both the summer and winter is an essential part of understanding the global atmosphere system.
This session invites papers on all aspects of the Arctic atmosphere including new instruments, new measurements, new sites, and new modeling efforts, and especially new insights into this complex and important atmospheric system.
S13. Climate Variability and Predictability
Lead: Hai Lin
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 interaction 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.
S14. Advances in Oceanographic Sensors, Instruments, Platforms, and Observing Systems
Lead: Mark Halverson
Our ability to characterize and understand the ocean's role in the climate system is limited to some extent by our ability to observe it. The ways in which we make observations are constantly evolving in response to numerous factors: technological advancements, marine industry needs, budget limitations, societal pressures, and our understanding of the ocean itself. These factors conspire to drive innovation in scientific ocean observing. Somewhat recent examples of transformational innovations include chemical-free biogeochemical sensors, cabled observatories, and autonomous sampling platforms.
The intent of this session is to bring together those with an interest in advancing oceanographic observations. We encourage presentations on new sensor and platform development, evaluation of sensor performance, quality assessment of long-term time series, and novel implementations of existing technology. The scope of this session also includes presentations focusing on scientific questions guiding instrument development, past or future.
S15. Building resiliency in Health and Environment in a Changing Climate
Lead: Melissa MacDonald
This is a session inviting presentations on the topics of risks and impacts on the health and environment of Canadians in a changing Climate using prediction elements such as modelling and forecasting, new health and monitoring research as well as case studies associated with the provision of health services. A changing climate is the contributing factor to extreme temperature events (heat and cold), to air quality events caused by wildfire smoke, to longer seasons for aeroallergens, and to new vector-borne diseases. Papers related to innovative applications for communicating health risks, how to improve services for Canadians to build resiliency, as well as social and mental health impacts are also encouraged to submit.
S16. Disappearing Arctic Sea Ice: Risks and Opportunities
Lead: John Falkingham
As sea ice continues to diminish rapidly in the Arctic, it is presenting a multitude of opportunities accompanied by inevitable risks. The shipping industry eyes shorter, more direct routes between Atlantic and Pacific. The oil and gas industry has already begun to exploit vast reserves under the Arctic Ocean. Mining companies hope for similar possibilities. As fish populations move to lucrative feeding grounds farther and farther north, fishing companies lobby for changes in regulations to let them follow the stocks.
At the same time, environmentalists decry the industrialization of the pristine Arctic, warning of ship- sourced air and marine pollution, adverse impacts on marine mammals, and the risk of difficult-to- contain oil spills in the ocean. Governments worrying about sovereignty claims work to solidify claims to the seabed resources in extended economic zones. Security, from both military and civilian perspectives, is a major worry. Will an open Arctic Ocean present an undefended border to foreign forces, terrorists, or criminals? Will increased activity in the Arctic lead to unaffordable search-and-rescue programs or worse?
This session aims to attract papers that will explore the opportunities that an ice-free Arctic will present along with the risks that these opportunities will bring. It is expected to draw presenters from industries looking to work in the north along with environmentalists, academia, and government scientists and regulators to offer projections about when and how we will see developments roll out. The session will emphasize the technical and practical issues associated with Arctic development, rather than the more scientific aspects of Arctic climate change.
S17. Impacts of Climate Extremes on Indigenous Communities
Lead: Eric Oliver
In the context of climate change, a plethora of global warming projections point to an increase in the frequency and intensity of climate extremes around the world in the years to come. These include prolonged periods of anomalously warm air and/or ocean waters, severe weather/wind storms, droughts and flooding events. Their profound impacts on both natural environments and social systems, however, pose an additional threat to Indigenous communities, whose lifeways are adapted to the unique climate and environmental conditions they have been living in for centuries or more. In particular, extreme weather events can impact the permafrost-based infrastructures in the north, and may often result in inaccessible traditional traveling routes. Meanwhile, many of these regions have also experienced extended droughts during 2018, threatening their already fragile water provisions. On top of that, common fishing or hunting practices of coastal-based populations can be altered by prolonged periods of extreme warm ocean temperatures (i.e. marine heatwaves), that may reinforce aseasonal ice reduction and migration of marine species. This can further lead to food insecurity for Indigenous people through an increased reliance on commercial foods. Although the discussion of climate change impacts on these communities is currently advancing, there is still little knowledge on the social and economic effects of the changing meteorological and/or ocean extremes on remote regions of the world. This session seeks current knowledge as well as new and evolving insights into extreme climate events that have impacted Indigenous communities across Canada and/or other parts of the world. We encourage studies and reports from community representatives and academic researchers, as well as partnerships between them, that will advance our understanding of the consequences of these events and contribute to discussions about the sustainable management of environments and the societies that depend on them.
S18. Coastal & Shoreline Community Resilience (Adaptation of coastal communities in Canada to extreme weather events and climate change)
Lead: Sebastian Weissenberger
As coastal and shoreline communities in Canada face increased risk with respect to climate change and extreme weather events, adaptation and resilience building becomes a crucial stake of local development. Several challenges face local communities in this endeavour, such as a lack of resources, of scientific knowledge, the complicated articulation of the various levels of governance, conflicts of interest in communities, the mobilization of social capital, or the inability to project in the future on time scales relevant to climate change. In this context, the co-production of knowledge between researchers and local decision-makers is increasingly important. This session uses examples from across Canada (including, but not limited to British Columbia, New-Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec), to highlight how this co-creation facilitates the transition from adaptation and resilience planning into specific concrete action. The session will highlight the different quantitative and qualitative techniques which scientists are using to assist in this, such as satellite imagery, remote sensing, shoreline vulnerability mapping, social network analysis, interviews and focus groups, participatory mapping, scenario planning, etc. Examples of applications may range from flood response and urban planning approaches to ocean acidification mitigation. These techniques will be related to how they can be used to strengthen community social resilience. Overarching concepts such as adaptive governance, social resilience and place-based decision- making will be explored for specific communities. We wish to stimulate a discussion on tools and approaches of community accompaniment, in a perspective that can be broadly defined as participatory action research, in which true partnerships between researchers and communities are created, in which knowledge is co-created, including valuing local and traditional knowledge, and research agendas determined through an open dialogue.
The Global Framework for Climate Services has determined that vulnerability assessment and risk management are important tools in the provision of usable science. They are also an important aspect of stakeholder-based sustainability initiatives. Local communities are an increasingly important major sector, particularly as they continue to declare climate emergencies in an effort to highlight the importance of climate change, extreme weather and related impacts. The relevance of this session to the overall theme is that it presents the range of techniques for climate services that are being used to examine the inter- related nature of scientific risk assessment, vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation to decision-making in coastal communities.
S19. Ocean-Sea Ice Interaction in a Changing Climate: Environmental and societal impacts
Lead: Angela Cheng
Recent observational and modelling studies show that the warming ocean has had, and will continue to have, a significant impact on the concentration, thickness and seasonality of sea ice. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the past ten years hold the record minimum sea ice extents out of all years on record. As the ocean has a much lower albedo than sea ice, retreating sea ice increases solar radiation absorbed by the ocean; this increases the temperature of the ocean, which further decreases sea ice coverage. The Arctic Ocean is particularly vulnerable to this positive feedback mechanism and experiences amplified change. These responses under a changing climate have significant environmental and social impacts on communities and animals in high-latitude regions. For Indigenous communities who rely on sea ice for traveling, hunting, food and other resources, the changing sea ice- ocean dynamic poses a great threat to their daily lives. For animals such as polar bears who need sea ice for resting, hunting and traveling, their survival is threatened with declined sea ice. Reduced sea ice coverage also allows for increased maritime activities including shipping and fishing, which increase the risk of oil spills and disrupt the ecosystem. Hence, there is an urgent need to better identify the ocean- sea ice interaction under a changing climate and the impacts on the environment and communities in the high latitudes. This research could improve future projections and consequently help communities, rights-holders and policy-makers plan for mitigation strategies to build resilience against these changing conditions.
We invite contributions from researchers, Indigenous communities, policy-makers, NGOs and others investigating how the oceans and sea ice are changing, those reporting on the societal impacts of changing oceans and sea ice conditions, and those working on mitigating threats due to changing sea ice and ocean conditions.
S20. Numerical Methods and Model Development
Lead: Christopher Subich
This session focuses on recent advances in software engineering, computational physics, and scientific computing related to the development of models for the atmosphere, ocean, land surface, and cryosphere. We invite submissions on:
- New and improved numerical schemes - including high-order and adaptive techniques
- The challenges of new computing architectures - including GPU computing, massive parallelism, hardware acceleration, cloud computing, and edge computing
- The problems of big data - including data storage, processing, and visualization
- The management and development of high-quality scientific software - including language choice, project organization, continuous integration and deployment, as well as best practices for debugging and
The goal of this session is the rapid dissemination of newly developed methods and techniques, even if they have not yet been deployed inside a large forecasting or analysis system.
S21. Climate Change information supporting resilient infrastructure
Lead: Xuebin Zhang
Much of Canada’s infrastructure is designed to function under the anticipated weather and climate condition during their life span. It is thus very important to know at the time of design the future weather and climate condition and their extremes in particular. Provision of such information that reflects future climate at the local scale and that is readily available for engineering applications is a challenge. This is because a set of simple values are often desired or required for practical application on one hand, while there is large uncertainty inherent in the regional and local scale climate projection on the other hand. Uncertainties in climate projections exist with respect to future socio-economic development and mitigation efforts, in our understanding of the climate system and our capability in simulating it, and due to the natural internal variability of the climate system. This session attempts to facilitate two-way communication between climate research and the infrastructure sector, on the climate information needs and on the means of meeting those needs related to code/standard development and environmental assessment. To this end, we invite presentations on the construction of climate change information for resilient infrastructure. Papers on information needs for climate resilient infrastructure, on the process of establishing codes and standards, and on the development of future projections of weather and climate extremes relevant to infrastructure adaptation, are particularly welcome.
S22. Uncertainty in Cryospheric Change
Lead: Lawrence Mudryk
All components of the cryosphere are vulnerable to rising temperatures associated with increased greenhouse gas concentrations. Historical levels of warming have already led to detectable changes throughout the cryosphere. Glaciers are thinning, Arctic summer sea ice is disappearing, permafrost is thawing and snow cover duration is shortening. For some components, however, changes and their regional variation are more difficult to quantify due to uncertainties in the observational record and models, making the assessment of associated risks and impacts more difficult. For example, while changes in the timing of snow and glacial melt are expected, projections of such changes are model dependent resulting in large uncertainties for future water supply. Likewise, observation and modelling of permafrost thaw are subject to considerable uncertainty, challenging local risk assessment and adaptation as well as simulations of the climate system as a whole. This session invites contributions across all cryosphere components that address uncertainty in observed and projected impacts of cryospheric change. Contributions can consider uncertainty in the observational record, range of model projections, or assumed physical impacts. Contributions with a clear connection to societal impacts and/or an emphasis on Canada are particularly encouraged.
S23. Renewable power in a changing climate
Lead: Laura Van Vliet
As the world shifts to renewable energy, a better understanding of the highly variable nature ofrenewable energy resources will become increasingly important. Current understanding islimited by uncertainty in the rate and geographic patterns of climate change, as well as short-term variability that affects the predictability of renewable energy.
This session will explore meteorological, oceanographic and climatic considerations for renewable power across Canada. Session content encompasses limiting factors affecting wind, solar, and marine energy prediction under current conditions and in a changing climate.
Submissions are welcomed from observational and model-based perspectives on topics including, but not limited to: boundary layer conditions and wind profiles, turbulence, solar irradiance and cloud cover, estimates of renewable energy potential, and power system modelling.
S24. Communicating Severe Weather Risk
Lead: Ken Macdonald
In an era of increasing awareness of severe weather and the impacts that it has for Canadians, greater attention is being placed on effectively communicating to those in potential danger to enable them to make timely and effective decision to reduce their risk. At the same time, the technologies for communicating within our society are evolving rapidly. This session will focus on the emerging tools for communicating risk, from public alerting systems to mobile apps and social media and how these can be used to greatest effect. It will also focus on the social science aspects of risk communication and ways to provide alerting information that will lead to effective and appropriate actions. Papers that explore alerting technologies and alert messaging approaches as well as papers that provide insights into the human response to alerts will be included.
S25. Changing Arctic: Science and Policy Studies
Lead: David Fissel
This interdisciplinary session will present emerging scientific results on the rapidly changing Arctic and northern environment. The physical environment of the Arctic, particularly the Western Arctic within Canada and in Baffin Bay, has changed dramatically over the past 35 years and in particular over the past 15 years. The underlying causes of these changes, in particular in terms of the cryosphere, oceanography, hydrology and meteorology, are being addressed through observational and modeling research. Papers will be presented on the changing Arctic conditions as to their profound effects on larger scale weather, oceanographic and hydrological patterns as well as on the ecosystem, the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, and commercial activities including shipping, The importance of Arctic research and its consequences in looking ahead is very timely and pertinent to informing the public and contributing to public policy issues in this strategically important part of Canada. Scientific papers will be solicited from a wide range of sectors including academia, government research agencies, the private sector, environmental non-governmental, community and First Nations. Papers are sought from research and science activities that is nearing completion, updates on research that is underway and the plans for research and science activities that is planned and just getting underway. This session will seek papers in the following areas: (i) Arctic Meteorology and Climate; (ii) Arctic Oceanography; (iii) the Cryosphere including sea ice, glaciers, terrestrial and marine snowfall and snow accumulation; (iv) interdisciplinary papers on Arctic Ecosystems and (v) policy papers on the Human Dimension of the Changing Arctic.
S26. The 2018 Dunrobin tornado: creating a nexus between physical science & social experiences
Lead: Jennifer Spinney
On the 21st of September, 2018, the strongest tornado to hit eastern Ontario since 1902 struck the city of Dunrobin, Ontario. While there were six tornadoes to affect the Ontario and Quebec region that day, the one that hit Dunrobin rated an EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale with winds measured at 265 km/hr, it destroyed or severely damaged greater than 50 homes and resulted in several injuries. Analyses carried out after the Dunrobin tornado captured the physical aspects of the event, including appraisals of physical damage by meteorologists and assessments related to the performance of structures by wind engineers. These physical assessments fail to capture, however, a social verification of forecast and warning procedures for the Dunrobin tornado, understandings from affected individuals and groups in the Dunrobin area about their experience with tornado risk, what it meant (and continues to mean) to socially recover from structural damage, and what it means to be resilient.
With the aim of creating a nexus between those working the weather and those living and responding to it, in this panel session concepts of risk, recovery and resilience will be explored from multiple perspectives including those grounded in physical science and others grounded in lived experience. More specifically, this session intends to fill a gap in knowledge by comparatively examining the official and unofficial ways risk was conceived of and responded to on September 21st, 2018. Additionally, participants who lived and responded to the Dunrobin tornado will offer perspectives of their experience, including their local perspectives of general tornado risk, individual risk assessment strategies on the afternoon of September 21st, responses to acknowledged tornado risk, and insight regarding the process of rebuilding one’s social life following the tornado disaster. There will be an invited talk by a representative from the Dunrobin Disaster Relief group.
S27. Flood Risk Analysis Under Climate Change
Lead: Saber Moazami
Flood hazard simulation and risk assessment are critical to developing resilience plans for communities and infrastructure, particularly in a changing climate. These analyses, however, are bound with various sources of uncertainties including model inputs, parameterization and structure. Characterizing and reducing these uncertainties are important to improving the monitoring, analysis, prediction, and reliable warning of hydroclimatic extreme events including flooding (riverine, pluvial, coastal), and the compounding effects of multiple flood hazards. Additionally, it is now widely recognized that the stationarity assumption can result in an underestimation of flood risks that are exacerbated by climate change. Rates of intense precipitation are increasing in many locations; most coastal areas are experiencing the sea-level rise and frequency of rain-on-snow flood events are rising in many areas. Data scarcity is another major issue in flood risk analysis particularly for the study of urban flood risks (such as local flash flood events). Recent high spatial and temporal resolution satellite and radar Quantitative Precipitation Estimates (QPE) can address the associated limitations leading to a comprehensive understanding of precipitation characteristics. However, because of the inherent uncertainties of remotely sensed precipitation products, they should be validated and bias-corrected using novel statistical techniques. This session aims to explore new developments to characterize the individual and combined effects of different types of flooding, hydrologic and hydraulic modelling, bias correction of remotely sensed products and novel multivariate statistical methods for flood risk analysis.
S28. Climate Resilience at the Urban Scale
Lead: James Voogt
It is critical that we build societal resilience to changing weather and climate in urban environments. In Canada, urban areas are home to a large majority of the population. Through the processes of urbanization, cities modify their local climates, with changes often in the same direction as those being imposed by large scale climate change. These combined changes can then generate additional stresses on urban inhabitants and activities. At the same time, urban activities are significant drivers of greenhouse gas emissions. This provides an opportunity for re-examining aspects of urban design and planning that affect urban climates with a view to contributing to urban adaptation and mitigation efforts and to improving urban resilience to changing weather and climate.
In this session we invite research contributions on urban climates and their relation to building societal resilience. These may include papers with a theme related to urban scale climate projections, impacts of extreme weather and climate on urban environments, climate change resilient urban infrastructure, heat and health in cities, urban design and planning strategies for adaptation and mitigation.
S29. Monitoring and Modelling Cryospheric Change
Lead: Homa Pour
The cryosphere is transforming in response to global climate change, with widespread impacts on climate, hydrology, landscapes, and northern communities. Snow, ice and frozen ground are defining features of the world’s mountain and Arctic regions, but their remoteness also makes them difficult to access for monitoring and process studies. Integrated remote sensing and modelling studies grounded in in situ field data are greatly needed to improve observational and predictive capacity for monitoring cryospheric response to climate change. This session is open to all aspects of modelling or monitoring of seasonal snow, lake/river ice, sea ice, permafrost, and glaciers and their interaction with the broader Earth system. We welcome contributions addressing the integration of observational and modelling studies as well as fundamental research that examines recent cryospheric change and projected sensitivity of the cryosphere to future climate change. We particularly encourage discussions of new and developing sensor technologies (e.g., satellite and drone imagery, in situ instrumentation), advanced modelling approaches, and the creation of new cryospheric observational capacities through community partnerships.
S30. Ocean and Large Lake Observing Systems and Operational Oceanography: Generating Two Way Synergy
Lead: Fraser Davidson
Operational Oceanography is the systematic and routine measurement of seas, oceans, large lakes and the atmosphere, and their rapid interpretation and dissemination to targetted stakeholders. It encompasses the value chain from ocean/lake observations to end use and includes ocean/lake observing, data management, prediction, dissemination systems and end users. Within Canada operational ocean prediction systems are expanding from the global domain at coarse resolution to coastal / port systems at very high resolution. The coastal region provides challenges for ocean/lake model and prediction systems, with local impacts from orography, river run off, tides, and complex bathymetry, often with little baseline reference knowledge.
This session provides the opportunity to present ocean/lake observing and modelling activities, their integration into ocean/lake prediction systems as well as their individual or combined use for providing useful information for decisions in the coastal environment. Example talk areas welcomed in this session include observations of opportunity, systems that could provide observations in real time, projects within which observations and modelling/prediction groups collaborate, new modelling studies in coastal areas, studies that improve access to observations and models to better inform end users, as well as mechanisms/systems for allowing end users to access and evaluate observations and prediction systems in the coastal environment.
This session includes individual presentations on the above subjects as well as a 30 min discussion period to look at increasing linkages/collaboration between observing groups, coastal communities, ocean/lake modelling and prediction groups in the coastal environment.
S36. Coastal Oceanography and Inland Waters
Lead: Jinyu Sheng
This special 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.
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