Situated within the political ecology of hazard, this article is an extended case study of the devastating 2003 wildfires in and around Kelowna, British Columbia (also known as the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire). This article reveals how compliance (or lack thereof) with fire mitigation strategies recommended by provincial, regional, and municipal agencies is complicated by differing social constructions of what constitutes ecologically sustainable forest management and community safety. Three perspectives emerge regarding the urban forests: "nature as hazard"-a volatile force to be controlled; "nature as instrumentally valuable"-a contribution to the character of one's surroundings and subsequent sense of place; and "nature as intrinsically valuable"-a distinct entity to be preserved and protected for its own sake. The article also examines how experiences of disaster influence community perceptions and result in a greater willingness to engage in fire mitigation strategies due to perceptions of heightened vulnerability. Forestry and fire mitigation agencies need to determine multiple courses of action among the varied and valid range of residents' nature perspectives. The role of human agency in disaster mitigation must be examined, particularly as the risk of fire at the wildland-urban interface continues to be exacerbated by encroaching human settlements and climate change. La forêt vue comme un risque ou une victime : les perspectives communautaires et l'atténuation des catastrophes au lendemain des feux de friches de 2003à Kelowna S'inscrivant dans le courant de l'écologie politique du risque, cet article a pour objet uneétude de casélargie portant sur les feux de friches de 2003 qui ont complètement détruit la région de Kelowna, Colombie-Britannique (aussi appelé le feu de forêt du Parc du Mont Okanagan). L'article met enévidence que la difficultéà se conformer aux stratégies d'atténuation des incendies proposées par tous les paliers gouvernementaux (provincial, régional et local) résulte du fait qu'il existe de nombreuses constructions sociales des pratiques de gestion forestièreécologiquement viable et de la sécurité communautaire. Il se dégage trois conceptions des forêts urbaines : «la nature comme risque», une force imprévisible qu'il faut maîtriser ; «la nature comme valeur instrumentale», un apport aux particularités du milieu et ainsià l'esprit du lieu ; et «la nature comme valeur intrinsèque», une entité distincteà conserver età protéger en soi et pour elle-même. Il est questionégalement de la façon dont les expériences vécues d'un désastre peuvent d'une part exercer une influence sur les perceptions des communautés, et d'autre part se traduire par une plus grande volonté de s'engager dans les stratégies d'atténuation des incendies en raison de la perception d'un sentiment de vulnérabilité plusélevée. Les instances responsables de l'exploitation des forêts et de l'atténuation des incendies ont l'obligation de définir toute une série d'actions parmi les conceptions nombreuses et valables que les Fore...
Climate change impacts are becoming increasingly evident in cities, generating hazards such as heatwaves and flooding events that may cause discomfort or trauma for residents. Climate change scholars suggest that measures undertaken on private lands provide a significant counterpart to public adaptation initiatives, and increasingly position the home site as an important scale of analysis within climate change research (Bichard & Kazmiercak, 2009; Jeffers, 2014; Pyhala et al., 2016; Wilson et al., 2014). Select scholars have also considered how municipalities may effectively engage with citizens to encourage greater home-based responses to climate-related hazards (Groulx et al., 2014; Hjerpe et al., 2014; Klein, 2014). This thesis explores citizen perspectives of climate change impacts, risk and opportunities for adaptation that are based at the scale of the urban home site in two midsized Canadian cities, Ottawa and Halifax. Through a qualitative research approach of discourse analysis, this thesis explores several distinct but related sub-themes: (1) how residents understand local places of climate change impacts and risk; (2) how residents engage with home site natures within a context of emerging ecosystem-based adaptation practices; and (3) how residents conceptualize the residential property in situating responsibility for managing neighbourhood stormwater flows. Within these sub-themes, I argue: (1) that places of significant climate change impacts are frequently conceptualized by residents beyond the home site; (2) that residents hold multiple conceptualizations of local natures, as reducing climate change impacts (through stormwater absorption and home cooling benefits) but also potentially contributing to additional risk (through treefalls during storms) from climate-related hazards; and (3) that ideas of property autonomy and boundaries are enacted in fluid ways by residents, as they situate obligation for neighbourhood TABLE OF CONTENTS: Abstract i Acknowledgements iii List of Tables vi List of Figures vii List of Appendices viii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Toward an enriched climate change adaptation scholarship at the scale of the urban home site 1.2 The study context 1.3 Research questions and key arguments 1.4 Thesis structure Chapter 2: Research Methodology 2.1 Introduction 2.2 A qualitative methodology to access citizen perspectives of climate change 2.3 The research settings 2.4 The research data: Characteristics and data collection 2.5 Methods of data analysis, measures to enhance research rigour, and research limitations 2.6 Conclusion Chapter 3: Adapting in (or out of) place? Citizen perspectives of climate change impacts and risk in Ottawa and Halifax v Chapter 4: Is adaptation in our nature? Citizen engagements with urban natures and climate change in Ottawa and Halifax 4.1 Introduction 4.2 A typology and examination of ecosystem-based climate change adaptation strategies in Ottawa and Halifax 4.3 Citizen engagements with local natures in the scholarly literature 4.4 Citizen perspectives i...
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