Kate Sherren

Landscapes - People - Global change

Category: Climate change (Page 1 of 27)

New paper: conceptual models as boundary objects

July 9, 2025 /

The final synthesis conceptual systems diagram for NSERC ResNet L1, included as Figure 3 in the Cornejo et al. (2025) NBS paper.

ResNet Landscape 1 postdoc Lara Cornejo led a great new paper, out this week in Nature-based Solutions, called Using a causal conceptual model of managed dyke realignment as a boundary object promotes multi-stakeholder collaboration and co-production. This paper tells the story of how conceptual models served as critical boundary objects in the Bay of Fundy case study (Landscape 1) of NSERC ResNet, and particularly the final conceptual model (above) based on expert knowledge and empirical project results. The process of building the model is discussed in another recent paper discussed here. This model is different from the baseline model we built at the outset of the project based on pre-/non-ResNet research, that did not include any feedbacks or any decision-making components. This model also has a focus on managed dyke realignment, rather than individual landforms like dykes or tidal wetlands. Thanks to Lara for leading this process!

Coastal Zone Canada 2025

June 20, 2025 /

 

Alex Legault presents his work on the Acadian diaspora and dykeland stakeholdership to CZC2025.

Athena Iraji talks about her early findings with Nancy Anningson from TransCoastal.

Four members of my team went to Coastal Zone Canada in PEI last week, and reported an excellent event. Colleagues from TranSECT and TransCoastal also participated in many sessions there. I certainly wish I could have attended, especially after I heard that A. R. Siders was the keynote. Alex Legault (above) presented his work on the Acadian diaspora, including the new plan to put the survey back in the field to try to acquire wider perspectives. Athena Iraji presented a poster on her very first results as she explores whether the timeline of the Coastal Protection Act actually expedited coastal development in the year of its passing. We’re so grateful to CZC for the support they gave Athena to attend this event. Keahna Margeson presented the results of her second PhD paper, which uses survey results around causeway sites in NB and NS to understand what drives support for river restoration. Finally Robin Willcocks Musselman presented the results of her recent paper on place and managed retreat, and introduced her empirical research plan. I hope CZC stops scheduling for the same week as IASNR, so I can attend the next one.

Saltmarsh Breakthrough

June 11, 2025 /

I was a minor contributor to the State of the World’s Saltmarshes 2025 report led by WWF that was launched this week at the UN Oceans Conference in France. The report aims to launch a ‘saltmarsh breakthrough’ similar to the one sparked for mangroves, drawing attention to the importance of saltmarshes in our climate future. My work with TransCoastal Adaptations and NSERC ResNet in the Bay of Fundy has in part explored the human dimensions of these important landscapes in a place where they’ve been largely converted to agricultural use through dyking and draining.

The UN Oceans Conference is just one of the conferences I’m not attending this week.  I had already been torn between the Coastal Zone Canada conference in PEI (where four members of my team are presenting) and the International Association for Society and Natural Resources in Vancouver (which I did register for and plan to attend). However, roots in my sewer line and the inevitable nasty backup mean that I’m here keeping company with members of my insurance company’s remediation team. I’m getting lovely notes from people at both events. I wish I was there, too!

TranSECT meets in Quebec City

May 5, 2025 /

Things get started at the TranSECT meeting at Universite Laval, April 28, 2025

TranSECT co-leads: Ian Stewart (Kings/Dal), Melanie Lemire (Laval), me, Fanny Noisette (UQAR) and Project Manager Line Bourdages (L-R).

After ResNet I went straight to Quebec City for a meeting of TranSECT and the wider Transforming Climate Action projects. It was wonderful to spend more time with our TranSECT colleagues in particular, and start tackling some of our shared research objectives together over the Monday and Tuesday.  We worked hard and had some social time also, at the Temps Perdu bar near the Universite Laval campus. Ian and I invited our incoming PhD student Christopher Randall and our incoming PDF Jessica Beaudette, who joined us before their actual start dates to get a good sense of the community they are joining. And what a community it is! I especially enjoyed our discussions of risk assessment and governance, and of dykelands and nature-based solutions of various kinds. The generative scribing of Deline from Agora supported all some sessions, and can be seen in some of these pictures. We made particular progress on plans for some related workshops and events over the coming year, bringing together Nova Scotia and Quebec parts of the TranSECT team. It was also wonderful to see students and postdocs networking and starting to build a cohort feeling. This was supported by the shared bus trip home to Halifax on Friday.

TranSECT (Cluster 3.3) at the end of our sub-meeting, April 29, 2025.

Saving carbon by car-pooling home.

Last ResNet AGM

April 26, 2025 /

Elson runs an icebreaker: which way is north, again?

Alex Legault and I grab a local Stukley beer at Jouvence, April 24, 2025

It was wonderful but also a little bittersweet to join with colleagues from the Bay of Fundy case study landscape (Danika, Brittney, Kiirsti and Alex) and from other landscape and theme teams nationally, for the last NSERC ResNet AGM. We again met at lovely Jouvence, near Orford in QC. Though we are heading into the project’s last year, there were still lots of students present and clearly plenty of scholarly work afoot. We spent a good bit of time looking at what we’ve accomplished as a group, but just as much time looking forward: how can we continue to leverage this work and these networks to make progress in achieving sustainable working landscapes in Canada? Our key messages were workshopped (“stress tested”) and many new research threads were shown as emerging from ResNet. Thanks to PI Elena Bennett for bringing us all together: to do this work in the first instance, and for this last opportunity to gather, celebrate and plot.

Lovely Lac Stukely was a mirror.

« Older posts

© 2025 Kate Sherren

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑