DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
Climate Change Adaptation Planning
Rochelle Owen, Director Office of Sustainability
Dalhousie University Campuses
100+ buildings/houses on 79-acres in
downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada.
50+ buildings AC campus
Includes 5.8 million gross square feet of
building space.
A campus population of approximately 26,500
(19,000 students, 7500 faculty and staff).
Four Campus: Studley, Carleton, Sexton –
Downtown Halifax, AC – Truro Bible Hill
Two District Heating Systems
Dalhousie University Campus
12 faculties and more than 3,600 courses
in 180 areas of study.
Dalhousie has a College of
Sustainability, Office of Sustainability,
Student Union Sustainability Office.
Largest university in the Maritimes.
200 year anniversary in 2018.
Purpose of the Session
• Demonstrate planning steps for implementing a climate
change adaptation process at a university/college
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Agenda
•
Introduction: to each other and climate change terms (10 min)
•
Climate Change Planning – Setting the scope and vulnerabilities (20 min)
• Identifying vulnerabilities from a university/college sitting within your
group
• Share examples and compare to Dalhousie data
•
Climate Change Planning – Identifying risk related to vulnerabilities (45min)
• Using vulnerabilities created in the group to assign risks and adaptation
strategies
• Share examples and compare to Dalhousie plan and actions
•
Follow-up Resources (5 min)
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Climate Change
• MITIGATION
• Reduce GHG emissions
and carbon footprint
• Energy and water
efficiency
• Conserve energy
• Fuel switching and
renewable energy
• Bike/walk/bus to campus
• Carbon sinks
• ADAPTATION
• Planning for inevitable
climate changes
• How will XXX
university/college be
affected?
Adaptation
• “Adjustment in natural or human systems in response
to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects,
which moderates harm or exploits beneficial
opportunities.
• Various types of adaptation can be distinguished,
including anticipatory, autonomous and planned
adaptation” (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), 2007, p.869).
Annual Average Temperature
Nova Scotia, 1895-1998
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Temperature (ºC)
7.5
1895-1998 Average 6.3ºC
Trend +0.5ºC/century
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6.5
6
5.5
5
Average of Yarmouth and Sydney
4.5
1895
1905
1915
Slide from EC
1925
1935
1945
Year
1955
1965
1975
1985
1995
Atlantic Canada
Impacts
Adaptation Plan Development Process
Literature Review
Campus-wide Survey
Planning Workshop
Focused Research
Draft Plan Reviewed
Data Vulnerabilities,
Risks,
Strategies
Group work
• In your group, pick a university/ college at your table
and explain the location – geography, weather impacts
– 5 min
• Identify vulnerabilities for this university/college as a
group using the sheet provided or electronic version
available for a lap top (examples of vulnerabilities will
be provided from Dal from our surveys and workshops
as an example. – 15 min
• Share a few vulnerabilities from the groups
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Some Dal Findings
IMPACTS
Finances
VULNERABILITIES
1. Energy
2. Transportation
3. Built
Environment
Classes
Food
Transportation
Housing
Administration
Energy
Health Services
*How you define vulnerabilities and the
scale will impact the categories and detail ex one specific vulnerability identified was
the roof of the Dalplex and road at the AC
Scenario Development
• Creating future scenarios can help the process of
identifying risks associated with vulnerabilities and
potential strategies
• Some organizations express risk qualitatively and/or
quantitatively (probability and impact) to rank
scenarios and measures
• The scale of the analysis can be at the person, building
(detailed study of building systems, occupant comfort,
operations), campus, community, regional levels.
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Partners
• Environment Canada and Dept of Environment
• Provided climate change adaptation science presentation
and information to the committee
• Helped select climate models and ran local weather data
through climate models to give projections for 2030, 2050,
2080
• Participated in the workshop
• Models saying: hotter, wettier, more extreme weather,
impacts on water
ΔTMAX (C)
ΔTMIN (C)
PCPN % Change
Tri-decade
2020s
2050s
2080s
2020s
2050s
2080s
2020s
2050s
2080s
Shearwater
(CGCM2)
1.52
2.15
3.11
1.54
2.09
2.88
8
12
12
Shearwater
(HadCM3)
1.17
2.12
3.51
1.87
2.73
4.00
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14
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The first row are values from downscaling output from the Canadian Coupled Global
Climate Model version 2 (CGCM2) and the second row are values based on the
Hadley (UK) Climate Model version 3 (HadCM3).” (Lines et al., 2009)
Climate Change Planning Workshop
• Future weather scenarios
• 6 scenarios
• Repetitive freeze/thaw, ice storm, hurricane, snow loading, heat wave,
flooding
• Group of participants given a scenario on paper and created
six mini movies with slides and voice overs that we showed
the group
• Identified associated vulnerabilities, levels of risk, and
adaptations
Literature Review
Campus-wide Survey
Planning Workshop
Focused Research
Draft Plan Reviewed
Climate Change Planning Workshop
• Sample future weather scenario:
• A category three hurricane has made landfall in Halifax. A deadly path of
destruction has been left as 100 mm of rain has dropped in 24 hours with
howling winds of 185 km an hour, and a 7 meter storm surge on the
coast. This is Heather Haliday reporting from the Henry Hicks building on
this September 12, 2050, a day that will always be remembered. Windows
have been blown out, trees knocked over, power lines are down and there
has been back up of storm/sewage water onto the roads. It is a disaster
zone here on campus. Residence staff and students have been moved to
the Dalplex where geothermal and solar energy provides electricity for
power and cooking. Dalhousie University estimates over $20 million
dollars of damage in broken windows and roofs. The President is
desperately trying to secure diesel fuel for the backup generators for
universities’ data center and research labs as power is projected to be off
for well over a week.
Literature Review
Campus-wide Survey
Planning Workshop
Focused Research
Draft Plan Reviewed
Climate Change Planning Workshop
• Priority Assessment
• Vulnerabilities, risks, and adaptations written on flip chart
paper and posted
• Using dots participants assigned their top four priorities for
each category
Literature Review
Campus-wide Survey
Planning Workshop
Focused Research
Draft Plan Reviewed
Group work
• In your groups discuss potential future climate scenarios (5 min)
• Then fill out the risk columns associated with each vulnerability
(as many as you can do) for probability and impact (high,
medium, low) and then a blended risk impact – you could use
numbers (20 min)
• Take you top vulnerabilities and brainstorm some potential
adaptation strategies (ex from Dal provided) (10 min)
• Share with larger group
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Some Dal Findings
• EMO Plan and communications – more detailed (pantry
plans), community considerations
• Campus retrofit priorities – Dalplex roof, Data center, Bury
power lines
• Energy security – tri-generation
• New design guidelines for buildings/grounds– bigger
storm water intake, cistern, green roof, swales, more
natural areas and less solid surfaces (asphalt), windows
and skins
• TDM – more infrastructure for active modes/teleworking
• Further study – storm water and natural environment
mapping
Integration
• Adaptation measures should be integrated into
climate change planning as together the
important mitigation and adaptation measures
may provide more priority for certain projects
• Ex. Dalplex roof, Combined Heat and Power projects
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Resources
• Dalhousie Office of Sustainability - our site – Climate
Change Adaptation Literature Review, Climate Change
Plan (more resources this year with addition of AC
campus planning), article published in IJSHE March
2013
• Governments –flood risk maps (state/prov/mun);
climate models and potential human support (EPA, EC,
NOAA, Nrcan, Health Canada); research and plans – all
levels, funding –potentially
• PIEVC - http://www.pievc.ca/e/index_.cfm - Engineering
protocol
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