The Ripple Effect: Resilient Socio-Ecological Systems Part 2 by Lauren Eden
Last Thursday we learned about ecological resilience theory, the Panarachy Framework, and how the study of ecological resilience has since been applied to our social systems. This entry will explore the socio-ecological resilience and its importance.
Socio-ecological systems are interconnected systems that link people and nature, where humans are seen as a part of, not apart from, nature [1].
What is Socio-Ecological Resilience?
Resilience in socio-ecological systems is strongly connected to the capacity for people within the system to respond together in the face of a disturbance [2]. Trust, strong leadership, and well-developed social networks are societal attributes that contribute to social capital [2]. Social capital is how social groups withstand external shocks to their social infrastructure, and adapt collectively to intentionally manage resilience[3][4]. Social capital or a community’s adaptive capacity can also be defined as their social resilience [3],[4]. As we saw in Alberta, our social capacity, our leadership, empathy, compassion, trust, and social networks were one of our greatest assets in the initial recovery of the 2013 floods.
Before and After Photos: Alberta Flood Mitigation as of June 9th, 2014
The Government of Alberta has released some aerial view photos of a selection of the flood mitigation work that has been done over the past year. It seems Google Maps hasn’t updated Southern Alberta since the flood last year, so below are before pictures provided by Google Maps and after shots provided by the Government of Alberta.
Canmore – Cougar Creek
Before June 2013:
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| Cougar Creek in Canmore as viewed from Google Maps. |
Emerald Awards: Congratulations ALMS and SWRP
The 2014 recipients for the Emerald Awards were announced on June 5th and the water category saw two recipients honoured. Congratulations to the Alberta Lake Management Society and the Southern Rockies Watershed Project Team.
The Ripple Effect: Resilient Socio-Ecological Systems by Lauren Eden
With the one year anniversary of the 2013 flooding in Southern Alberta approaching it is important to consider moving beyond the initial flood recovery stages and to dive deeper into what it means to rebuild resiliency into our social and ecological systems. This blog will explore the theory of ecological resiliency and its application to social resilience. In a second installment, this blog will discuss the concept of socio-ecological resiliency. The intention of this series is to enhance our shared ecological literacy so we can begin to move forward and conceptualize resilient methods to mitigate and manage future floods or droughts within the Province.
In order to understand the importance of building our socio-ecological resiliency we must first understand ecological resiliency and how it has been applied to our social systems.
Flood Forecasting Review and Workshop Conclusions
Two reports have been released from AI-EES and Alberta WaterSMART, one with conclusions from the February Workshop and another which compares the Alberta Flood Forecast system to other jurisdictions from across Canada and the globe. These reports focus on flood forecasting rather than flood mitigation, and are a follow up to a workshop we live tweeted back in February. As always, if you have feedback we will send it on to the authors.
Having attended the workshop, the following would be the top three most interesting things (to the author) mentioned at the workshop.
1. Data Collection – Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network (CoCoRahs)
One problem that plagues flood forecasting is a lack of data, however that may change with enough citizen involvement. CoCoRahs is a volunteer program where individuals measure the rain at their home every day and submit information to a database thereby expanding the available data. This database can then be used by Flood Forecasters, Researchers, Modellers, or whoever is just curious to view the data or calibrate models. CoCoRaHs is a popular tool used in the U.S. that allows citizens to provide rainfall data to flood forecasting specialists. Specifically, Colorado used CoCoRaHs as an additional tool for acquiring precipitation data to determine water quantities during their 2013 flood. If you’re interested in contributing, visit the CoCoRahs website for more information. Data collected from southern basins Alberta will be used put to good use. The data submitted from southern Alberta basins eventually feed into the Manitoba River Forecast Centre which uses CoCoRahs in their forecasting systems.
Alberta’s Watershed Management Symposium: Flood and Drought Mitigation
Today is the one-day symposium Alberta’s Watershed Management Symposium: Flood and Drought Mitigation and the Alberta WaterPortal staff will be in attendance to live tweet the event. The Government of Alberta’s event aims to “share the latest updates on snowpack data and river forecasting, as well as assessments of mitigation option for Alberta’s most flood-prone river basins”[1]. If you can not attend the event we’d encourage you to follow us on twitter to receive updates throughout the day.
The event should see the release of new reports that address the feasibility of options that were presented at the October 4th Symposium. This blog post will be updated with those reports at the end of the day. In the meanwhile we’ve assembled a list of released reports to date. If we’ve missed any please leave a comment so that we may also add them to the list.
Make It Count: Renewed Resolutions For Earth Day
Although Earth Day is a fantastic celebration of everything green we do, it is also a day that invites the obvious question: “why only one day a year?”. Earth Day Canada has addressed this criticism this year with their “Make it Count” campaign, which has asked Canadians to set Earth friendly goals and track them throughout the year. What is fantastic about this campaign is that I know firsthand what they are proposing works because I tried it last year. However, instead of setting goals I committed to one relatively simple resolution.
Rising Up: Understanding Groundwater Flooding and Associated Risks
During the June 2013 flood, the front pages of newspapers and websites across Alberta and Canada displayed images of overland flooding. In the months following however, news coverage began to focus on a different contributor: groundwater. Flooded basements, sewer back-ups, out of service elevators, cracked foundations, water mysteriously appearing behind berms; these were all symptoms of groundwater flooding. Simply put, groundwater flooding can cause at least as much damage as overland flooding; a fact that has often been overlooked and under-recognized.
What is going on underground?
There are a number of ways in which groundwater can contribute to flood damage:
Seepage: In the case of groundwater seepage, a build-up of water in the ground causes the underground water table to rise to the level of subsurface structures (e.g. basements, garages and underground parkades). Water then seeps into the structures through cracks and other structural faults;
Sewage back-up: In the case of sewage back-up, water on flooded streets drains into manholes, causing an overload of the sanitary sewer system. This can force sewage water back through the sewer line and into basements;
The above contributors to flooding can occur individually or simultaneously, and may be further exacerbated by overland flooding.
Since it is commonly believed that the easiest way for water to enter buildings from the subsurface is through the sewer system, basement flooding has often been blamed on sewage back-up when, in fact, the culprit may be groundwater. Understanding the role that the groundwater environment plays during flooding events is of the utmost importance in terms of identifying areas at risk.
BRBC March 12th Quarterly Forum Summary: Part 2
The Bow River Basin Council Quarterly Meeting and Networking Forum was held on March 12th at the TransAlta Auditorium. This sold out event brought together participants and speakers from throughout the southern Alberta water community. Part 1 was published on April 1st and you can read the first entry here.
Citizen Science
Dinah Duke from the Miistakis Institute discussed Citizen Science or Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR). Two Misstakis projects were highlighted in the presentation:
• Road Watch in the Pass utilizes local knowledge of animal movement across Highway 3 to help reduce large mammal mortality rates.
• The Leave it to Beavers Watershed Stewardship project is studying the introduction of two beaver families to the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Area southwest of Calgary. Citizens were asked to collect data before and after the reintroduction of beavers to demonstrate their role in watershed stewardship. This project also combined citizen participation with a formal monitoring program to study riparian health inventories and water quality.
Duke noted some of the advantages and disadvantages that arise from citizen science. Citizen Science provides a number of benefits including allowing citizen engage in the decision making process and providing data that would be challenging and expensive to collect via conventional research methods. However, there are challenges with respect to recruitment and retention of participants including reconciling competing goals, obtaining needed resources, sustainability, evaluating and measuring success, and measuring conservational goals. If you are interested in participating one of the programs offered visit the Miistakis Institute website or follow the Miistakis Institute on twitter.
To explore additional PPSR projects check out: Audubon Bird Count, Zooniverse, Fold It, FLOCAST, and ASFPRM.
Forestry Perspective on Watershed Management
A representative from Spray Lakes Sawmills provided a presentation on the complexity of managing the headwaters from a forestry perspective. While a common recommendation is to protect the headwaters, the presenter argues that this notion is overly simplified. Rather than protect the headwaters, the presenter argues a better approach might be to manage the headwaters.
Flood Mitigation in the Bow Basin
March 31st was the due date for multiple reports from engineering groups to submit assessments of “flood reduction projects options“. As those reports become publically available they will be added to the Alberta WaterPortal for our users to view.
One final report that is already public is Alberta WaterSMART‘s final report for the Bow Basin Flood Mitigation and Watershed Management Project. It was submitted to the ADM Flood Recovery Task Force on March 31st. This project was funded by Alberta Innovates – Energy and Environment Solutions and the Task Force.