Spring has sprung and that means new updates for the “Advancing Municipal Natural Asset Management through Monitoring and Engagement” research project! As I discussed in my last update, all interviews have now been completed and I have officially shifted to data analysis and writing. Even though I was unable to visit the municipalities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, staff were gracious enough to provide plenty of time for online interviews and resources to get an excellent lay of the land. One of the most fascinating points for me during this interview process was the variety of reasons municipalities had for implementing a municipal natural asset management approach. This is something I want to explore a little more as it gives some context for some of the early patterns we are starting to see across municipalities. As I move into the last few months of my research, much of my focus will be on writing my thesis, preparing a report to publish for the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative (MNAI), and starting a transition into the professional world.
I am also happy to announce that if you are reading this early enough, I will be presenting at two upcoming conferences: the Canadian Network of Asset Managers Virtual Conference in May and The Society for Ecological Restoration 9th World Conference in June. Trying to boil down what will end up being close to 20 months of research into a 30-minute talk has been challenging, but it has been exciting to see all this work culminate together into a finished product. I am also excited to speak to these two conferences in particular because I believe they encapsulate this merging of two worlds that is essential to municipal natural asset management: municipal service delivery and ecosystem restoration. It’s often a fine line to walk, with critiques from both sides, but by appropriately framing natural asset management as a nature-based solution, you can address very real municipal issues. One of the critiques we have been hearing is on the validity of the ecosystem services concept. However, this research addresses two gaps that are a part of ecosystem service critiques. These gaps are the lack of long-term monitoring of ecosystem services projects and the effectiveness of policies in addressing biophysical underpinnings. At this time, the work being done in these communities is still relatively new. It will be some time before we will be able to see concrete changes in biophysical metrics due to the restoration or rehabilitation of natural assets. However, through the monitoring and evaluation framework established, it does create a roadmap for municipalities to get to a place where positive changes in key biophysical categories is not only common, but necessary as a part of the program. While I respect the critiques levied against the concept of ecosystem services, this research shows that the present socio-political and economic context almost necessitates the need for a concept like ecosystem services and the various valuation methods that come along with that. As I’ve mentioned in other blog posts, Canadian municipalities are cash-strapped. Their infrastructure is starting to fail. If we can encourage the creation of policies and programs like municipal natural asset management that addresses these concerns while also creating ecology-first mindsets in financial departments, accounting departments, asset management departments, engineering departments, etc. through the concept of ecosystem services, we are creating the kind of integration necessary to effect real change, at least at the local level. While still early, we are starting to see those changes now, especially when it comes to changes in zoning bylaws, official plan objectives, project funding, and other implementation indicators. In my last post, I also discussed some of the difficulties Canadian municipalities are facing right now due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Well, the Government of Canada has made several announcements that are steps to address these difficulties. In their Fall 2020 Economic Statement for “Building Back Better: A Plan to Fight the COVID-19 Recession”, the Government of Canada announced “$631 million over 10 years, starting in 2021-22, to Environment and Climate Change Canada to restore degraded ecosystems, protect wildlife, and improve land and resource management practices.” This is exactly the kind of funding commitment that could push municipal natural asset management as a nationwide practice. In related news, President Biden announced a near-$2 trillion Infrastructure Plan, just a few weeks ago. While budget reconciliation proceedings will make compromises inevitable, there are a few provisions for conservation action, including 250,000 jobs plugging abandoned oil and natural gas wells and reclaiming abandoned coal, hard rock, and uranium mines. While there isn’t anything in the plan that concretely points to municipal natural asset management practices in the U.S., I am hopeful that climate activists and progressive Democrats can make nature-based solutions a real focus. In local news, the Town of Gibsons recently announced the world’s first-ever staff position of Natural Asset Technician! Similar to an Engineering Tech, a Natural Asset Tech works as a member of the Infrastructure Services department but is focused on natural assets. The Town of Gibsons continues to be a champion for municipal natural asset management and this move represents a firm commitment that natural assets cannot just be seen as part of environmental work, but should take the same priority as roadways, bridges, and other forms of built infrastructure. That level of consideration is a critical part of moving municipalities from just setting the foundation for natural asset management towards action. So, where does this work go from here? Well Dr. Drescher and I have been in discussion with MNAI about how to transition this monitoring and evaluation framework into the long-term. One of the ways to do that is by introducing biophysical indicators and benchmarks. These will become increasingly relevant as more municipalities start to restore and rehabilitate key ecosystems. Another question to consider is who monitors? Do the municipalities use this framework themselves to check their own progress? Or do third parties take up this framework? As mentioned, these conversations are ongoing. I plan to post another blog entry later in the summer months and I will be sure to include any updates on that front there. Lucas Mollame
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With fall blowing in, come some fresh updates for our project “Advancing Municipal Natural Asset Management through Monitoring and Engagement”! I have just completed the interview guide and survey questions for my research and have officially submitted our ethics application. We are hopeful that we can receive word in the next few weeks, complete revisions as necessary, and then start contacting our stakeholders for remote (because of the pandemic measures) interviews. One factor that has been a major theme throughout this initial scoping process (and is true of all evaluations) is the need to carefully consider the goals of the evaluation in every stage of the process. From building our initial program logic model to creating these interview questions, we have had to determine how our evaluation questions match up to the expected program outcomes and how to find answers to those questions in our interviews. One of our most valuable resources in building this framework has been our literature database with close to 200 documents. Through the MAXQDA analysis software, we have compiled a variety of academic and grey literature on topics such as asset management, program and plan evaluation, natural assets, green infrastructure, and ecosystem services. These efforts have led us to a vast wealth of knowledge on possible indicators, evaluation questions, community responses, and analysis techniques that will inform how we conduct the rest of the study. Through some of the key software functions, we have been able to code this literature with almost 300 subcodes to show relationships and connections throughout the text. These subcodes vary from “Nature-based solutions monitoring tools” to “Green infrastructure delivery performance”. Hopefully this sweeping approach will not only be useful in this research but in other research projects as well. Throughout this past spring and summer, many of you may have seen announcements of the difficulties various Canadian municipalities are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these difficulties have centred on the lack of municipal funds required to service their respective municipalities. This could be potentially devastating. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) had reached out to the federal government for aid. Professor Drescher and I wrote a piece for The Conservation on this very issue that was published in June. You can read it here. From our time of publishing to now there have been quite a number of updates. Most notably, the federal government announced in mid-July $19 billion dollars of funding for COVID-19 supports, with much of that directed towards municipalities to continue delivering their essential services. While this finding is an excellent stopgap for our municipalities, I would still argue that municipal leaders need to look to new strategies for service provision. In federal politics, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and the Federal Liberal government seem to be focused on “building back better” (a term that originated in the context of natural disaster recovery) by investing in and creating a green economy. Recently, new Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said that this recovery plan is too narrowly focused on a green economy. However, as this piece in the Globe and Mail highlights, Mr. O’Toole’s platform calls for ending the federal carbon tax, reversing the ban on oil tankers off the northern B.C. coast, and changing the review process for large projects. While Mr. O’Toole would like to say that the Liberals have forgotten about small businesses, I would be remiss to forget about all the small mom-and-pop oil tanker shops Mr. O’Toole is defending. In fact, I would argue that investing in something like the retrofitting of older buildings, many of which house small businesses and restaurants, would greatly benefit local economies and the majority of Canadians. As well, a focus on a green economy prepares us for climate change, an economic disaster that would far outpace COVID-19. Coupled with this larger announcement has been a string of smaller announcements, from the federal government and other organizations, in traditional asset management programs for various municipalities across Canada. When read together, these announcements can be seen as an encouragement from our federal leaders to “work with what we have”. Hopefully, this messaging for asset management will lead more municipalities to learn about natural assets and sustainable service delivery. This is especially relevant, as due to various restrictions throughout the summer, many people made an effort to “rediscover nature”. In doing so, local residents have learned of the complex and varied services offered by our local ecosystems as well as a duty of care for these natural areas. I would argue that these factors have created a strong catalyst for more municipalities to explore municipal natural asset management. Taking a view of the bigger picture, we’ve seen the adoption of municipal natural asset management policy promoted as a cost-saving practice in addition to an environmental stewardship practice. But beyond that, the COVID-19 pandemic and our response to it has also made many observers critically aware of how this may translate to our response to climate change. Hopefully, our reliance on nature as an avenue for recreation during the pandemic and a renewed sense of concern for our preparedness to climate change, should lead to leaders exploring policy that addresses these concerns. Lucas Mollame Hello Everyone! My name is Lucas Mollame and I am a second-year Master student at the University of Waterloo in the School of Planning. Aside from my interest in all things environmental planning, I enjoy hiking, kayaking, the Toronto Raptors, exploring new trails, and grape ice cream. I came to the School of Planning through my undergraduate degree in Anthropology from the University of Ottawa and my time with the City of Cambridge’s Parks, Recreation and Culture Division. At the University of Ottawa, my practicum work revolved around user experiences with different commuting strategies to and from work. At the City of Cambridge, I worked with various team members to maintain key natural areas. For my research at the School of Planning, I am studying the advancement of municipal natural asset management through monitoring and engagement efforts. With the increasing effects of climate change on various municipalities across Canada and grey infrastructure assets under direct pressure, forward thinking local government leaders and stakeholders have looked to green infrastructure strategies to supplement municipal services through ecosystem services. One of these strategies is municipal natural asset management. In a traditional sense, asset management is defined as coordinating activities for an organization to realize the value from its assets to achieve various organizational objectives and goals. Therefore, natural asset management is translating this concept to our natural areas and recognizing that they can provide core local government services such as stormwater management. As well, natural assets often can provide these services at a lower capital and operating costs than built infrastructure. While some municipalities have begun to explore the integration and implementation of municipal natural asset management, stronger evidence, including systematic evaluation would foster support among municipal officials and staff. Over the past few months, my adviser, Michael Drescher, and I have been working to create an evaluation framework for municipal natural asset management projects occurring across Canada. To prepare, we conducted a comprehensive literature review on ecosystem services, nature-based solutions, green infrastructure, and program evaluation. In collaboration with the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative (MNAI) we have built a program logic model as well as an evaluation matrix. While we have developed several indicators for the outcome streams in our program logic model, MNAI will be selecting the most relevant indicators for their projects. From there, we will contact relevant staff at our project communities to begin the evaluation. For municipalities, this research will create a flexible and adaptive evaluation framework that can be used for other natural asset management projects. What we are attempting to do here is to create a set of indicators that can be applied in a variety of settings for various communities. As well, in order to push natural asset management into the mainstream, evaluations play a large role in confirming the validity of this approach. For this research, this could mean securing funding opportunities and partnerships with critical stakeholders in other municipalities wanting to adopt municipal natural asset management. As well, this research will establish an evidence database of beneficial outcomes of municipal natural asset management. Taking a long-term perspective, we hope that this research can support enhanced service provision to communities, improved management of community asset risk, and widespread ecosystem conservation and protection. Personally, my interest in this project lies in my dedication to conservation and environmental stewardship. I have enjoyed natural areas such as waterfronts, beaches, parks, and urban trails for all of my life. This love has then evolved into academic interests and ultimately, a career path. I believe that Canadian municipalities have the capacity to be leaders in our efforts against loss of biodiversity and climate change. As well, I also think it is critical to mention that I am concerned about the devastating effects of climate change. These concerns are not only for catastrophic global events, but events that could be felt at home. However, this concern serves as a consistent motivation to work in a field where concrete environmental changes are possible. While my confidence is prone to wavering, my resolve remains steadfast. It is my hope that this research begins a long career in fighting against climate change and restoring our world’s ecology. Moving forward, our next steps in the project will be to build our survey questions and interview guide and then to receive ethical clearance for both of these pieces. Next, we will contact relevant stakeholders and local government staff to schedule interviews and meetings. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be conducting these interviews remotely. If you are interested in finding out more about this research, please follow this blog or follow me on twitter at @LMollameMNAM. Lucas Mollame The Natural Resources Conservation Planning and Management research group is looking for candidates for up to 2 PhD positions to start in September 2018. The positions come with guaranteed funding through the Faculty of Environment Dean's Doctoral Initiative (https://uwaterloo.ca/environment/deans-doctoral-initiative).
Our group is looking for candidates interested to work in research situated in the following areas:
Excellent, self-motivated, and well-qualified candidates are encouraged to contact us to discuss these opportunities. The deadline for applications is the end of February 2018. This past summer, there did not seem to be a week without news about another natural disasters or extreme weather event somewhere on the globe. Hurricane Irma (www.cbc.ca/news/world/irma-hurricane-tropical-depression-florida-georgia-1.4285148) and the wildfire that was engulfing Waterton Lakes National Park and surrounding communities (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/waterton-kenow-fire-pincher-creek-evacuations-1.4285153) are just two examples. Disturbances such as hurricanes and wildfires are a normal and essential part of natural systems. Without these disturbances ecosystems do not follow their natural dynamics, they lose diversity and become prone to even larger disturbances at some later time. But problems come in with scale mismatches and when we throw peoples' values into the mix. We have built our world to be static; we do not want things to move around or to change. We want our world to be predictable and it is best when everything stays the same, always. But this is not how nature works. Nature is fairly predictable at larger scales, but pretty messy at smaller scales. Unfortunately, this messiness is increasing with climate change, as is the lack of fit between human ways to organize our affairs and natural dynamics. It has long been claimed that individual events cannot be attributed to climate change. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that climate change is already driving more extreme weather events and the frequency and intensity of some events can be attributed to climate change (science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6293/1517). The world is unlikely to end tomorrow; not even with climate change. But the social and economic systems that we have created are not resilient; they are vulnerable and brittle. We would do well to learn from nature and modify our human systems to flexibly respond to change. Some useful concepts to think about include redundancy, diversity, and resistance. Systems that have no backups, that are too homogeneous, and that are too connected, set us up for widespread failure.
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