Niagara Adapts

Niagara Adapts was a partnership designed to build innovative climate solutions right here in Niagara. By leveraging resources and expertise from seven municipalities in the Niagara Region and Brock University’s Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, the partnership supported collaborative climate change adaptation assessment, planning and implementation.

About Niagara Adapts

In The News

Resources & More Information

Partnership Highlight Videos

Meet the Brock Team

Municipal Partners

Climate Vulnerability Fact Sheets

Climate Change Adaptation Plans

About Niagara Adapts

Comprised of twelve municipalities, the Niagara Region is home to nearly half a million people. The region is experiencing impacts from climate change, including an increase in average temperature, hot days (with temperatures above 30oC), summer droughts, heavy rains, frost-free days and freeze-thaw cycle. These impacts are anticipated to increase in intensity and frequency in the future.

Climate change adaptation planning enables communities to understand their vulnerabilities, manage the impacts, risks and opportunities posed by a changing climate. Niagara Adapts is a novel partnership between Brock University and municipalities in the Niagara Region. The Niagara Adapts partnership cultivated a community of practice for climate change adaptation planning and build climate resilience in the region into the future.

Past Participants

Jessica Blythe

E-mail: jblythe2@brocku.ca
Twitter: @_JessicaBlythe
Please find my Google Scholar profile here

Assistant Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University

Ph.D. University of Victoria (Geography)
M.A. York University (Geography)
B.Sc. (Honours) Memorial University (Marine Biology)

Jessica’s research engages in issues related to resilience, climate change adaptation, and transformation. She is particularly interested in how societies both create and respond to change. Her research is founded on the assumptions that: i) social and ecological systems are inherently linked and ii) the costs and benefits of environmental change are distributed unevenly. As a result, her research is necessarily transdisciplinary and collaborative, and explores the ways that environmental change interacts with other global processes to exacerbate inequality, increase vulnerability, and undermine social-ecological sustainability.

Ryan Plummer

Email: rplummer@brocku.ca

Professor & Director of the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre

PhD, University of Guelph (Rural Studies)
MA, University of New Brunswick (Sport & Recreation Admin)
BOR (Hons), Lakehead University (Outdoor Recreation)
BA, Lakehead University (History)

Ryan’s multi-faceted program of research broadly concerns the governance of social-ecological systems. In striving to advance knowledge of collaboration and adaptation within complex systems, he has focused on the exploring their theoretical underpinnings and ethical implications, modeling their processes, examining the roles of social capital, and investigating the influences of social learning. Water resources are the context in which his research mainly occurs and he is a Faculty Investigator in the Water Policy and Governance Group.

Angela Mallette

Email: am16po@brocku.ca

MS candidate, Brock University (Environmental Sustainability)
BEd, Bishop’s University (Secondary Science Education)
BSc, Bishop’s University (Biology)

Angela’s research broadly focuses on environmental assessment, with a specific focus on parks and protected areas. Other research areas include environmental education and communication, ecological integrity, and societal perceptions in conservation. With a background in climate science, physical and human geography, as well as animal biology, her interests include climate change adaptation, biodiversity conservation, social-ecological systems, and outreach and education.

Amanda Smits

Email: asmits@brocku.ca

Centre Administrator, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre

MEd, Brock University (Administration & Leadership)
BA, Wilfrid Laurier University (Political Science & Business Administration)

Amanda completed a Master of Education in the Administration and Leadership stream at Brock in 2017, where her research focused mainly on post-secondary sustainability policies in practice. Amanda now acts as project manager on multiple innovative community partnerships for the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC). She is interested in creating community connections through the ESRC and believes that partnerships, such as Niagara Adapts, allow the ESRC to leverage resources and talent with key partners and stakeholders, to build community capacity through evidence-based decision making processes.