Course name PLAN 500 Planning for Resilient Cities and Regions

Name of academic (owner of the material) Dr. Jeff Birchall

Email address jeff.birchall@ualberta.ca

Topic Adaptation, Climate Resilience, Disaster Risk Reduction

Course website {Empty}

Main course information Environmental resilience requires a comprehensive planning approach, one which is forward thinking, flexible, and grounded in science and practical experience. This course explores planning for resilience from a range of perspective, including city managers, transportation and land use planners, utilities engineers, emergency management and sustainability managers, landscape architects, environmental scientists, port authority managers, and elected officials. All these perspectives contribute to, and reflect the governance of a community, and ultimately influence the it’s capacity for resilience. Case studies from across North America will highlight a variety of environmental stressors (including sea level rise, coastal instability, overland flooding, earthquakes, volcanoes) and demonstrate lessons learned and best practices with respect to planning techniques and approaches from a range of communities, from remote towns in the Arctic to population-dense urban centres in British Columbia’s lower mainland, to vibrant port towns in the Maritimes. Note, while the course will explore a range on environmental stressors, a majority of time will be dedicated to climate change. The objective of the course is to provide students with an opportunity to explore some of the practical and nuanced characteristics of environmental resilience as it relates to city and regional planning. This includes an appreciation of the variety of environmental impacts that stress communities, as well as the decision-dynamics behind the policies and planning actions communities take (or should take) to improve their resilience. This includes discussing barriers and challenges to gaining buy-in for action, tools, instruments and best practices for facilitating action, as well as some of the dynamics of working with different levels of government and key stakeholders.

Geographical scale Global

Region Examined Global (more than one region)

Language English

Other language: Please specify English

Level of Instruction Post-graduate

Year of publication (last updated max 5 years ago) 2019

Course manual

Download

Reading list {Empty}

Assignments/Exams {Empty}

Study Guides {Empty}

Other materials {Empty}

Accepted Yes