Bringing adaptation home: Citizen engagements with climate change at home site scales in Ottawa and Halifax

Abstract

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...