11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
1.5 ConEd Learning Hours
How can we ensure the growth of Toronto—Canada's largest and fastest-growing city—is climate-resilient? What role do landscape architects play in implementing resilience? How do we design for Nature-based Solutions? What are the Rights of Nature?
This session will provide an overview of Toronto's path to becoming a resilient city, including the use of nature-based solutions and the role of innovative, thoughtful landscape architecture. Participants will also gain better understanding of the tools Toronto has used to encourage nature-based solutions, including the Biodiversity, Ravine, and Resilience Strategies, the Toronto Green Standard, and the Green Roof Bylaw. The session will also engage with the audience about their views of resilience. The session asks: how successful are nature-based design solutions in addressing resilience in an urban environment? Do Toronto's policies, implementation tools, and actions adequately address resilience in the light of future shocks and stresses? What should we be doing and what are the gaps and opportunities?
Learning Objectives
On completion of the session, participants will:
- Be familiar with interdisciplinary collaboration tactics to advance low-carbon resilience and nature-based solutions.
- Understand the rights and co-benefits of working with nature.
- Understand ways to transform communities for resilience, sustainability, and well-being.
- Be familiar with innovative solutions used in the context of Toronto to address future climate-related problems.
Speakers
Jane Welsh, BLA, MSc. Planning; OALA FCSLA, Chair, CSLA Committee on Climate Adaptation
Jane Welsh is the Project Manager of the Environmental Planning unit of Toronto City Planning responsible for creating new, innovative solutions to address sustainability and resilience issues and change the way Canada's largest city is built. Her work includes development of the Toronto Green Standard, Green Roof Bylaw, and Bird Friendly Guidelines; she played a lead role in developing the first Ravine Protection Bylaw, Ravine Strategy, and Biodiversity Strategy for Toronto. Jane has a degree in Landscape Architecture and a Master of Science in Planning. She chairs the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) Committee on Climate Adaptation, is a past-president of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects, and was elected to the CSLA College of Fellows in 2018.
Colleen Mercer Clarke, M.Sc., M.L.A., PhD, FCSLA, APALA, Chair, Professional Practice & Policy Committee, International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA).
Working at scales from urban parks to large landscapes, Colleen Mercer-Clarke’s career has spanned 45 years and encompasses environmental assessment and audit, site planning and design, research, teaching, and writing. With a doctorate in Interdisciplinary Studies, and a post-doctorate in coastal and oceans health, Colleen’s work now largely focuses on advancing resilience and sustainability in a changing world. In 2012, she was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on coastal adaptation at the Climate Change Directorate of NRC, Colleen is author of Nature-based Solutions By Design and co-author of The Adaptation Primers – a resource for decision-makers. A CSLA Fellow, Colleen was the 2016 Recipient of the President’s Award for her advocacy and work on climate change and the professions.