New op-ed on planning for resilience in Cape Town

Cape Town is facing one of its worst droughts in over a century. Facing acute water shortages and lower than average winter rainfalls, the City of Cape Town is planning for emergency water supply and is considering new approaches to water in the longer term. While the immediate pressures to supply water will likely require […]

New Policy Brief: Luker and Rodina on Drought Management in Cape Town

Luker, E. & L. Rodina (2017) Policy brief: The Future of Drought Management for Cape Town- Summary for Policy Makers. The University of British Columbia, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. The City of Cape Town (CCT), and South Africa in general, have been experiencing significant water shortages due to the ongoing drought. In early April 2017, […]

New policy brief: Morinville and Harris, Participatory urban water governance in Ghana

Morinville, C & L. Harris (2016) Policy brief: Analyzing participatory urban water governance in Accra, Ghana. The University of British Columbia, Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainability. See full text HERE.  

Photo exhibition by Graham McDowell

Graham McDowell, an environmental change researcher and EDGES member, recently opened a photo exhibition at the Liu Institute lobby gallery at The University of British Columbia. The official opening of the exhibition happened on Monday September 12. It will run until the end of November. Description: High places––mountains and the Arctic––are home to some of the planet’s most […]

New Pub: Harris,Theorizing gender, ethnic difference, and inequality in relation to water access and politics in southeastern Turkey

Harris, L. (in press) Theorizing gender, ethnic difference, and inequality in relation to water access and politics in southeastern Turkey. In: C. Ashcraft and T. Mayer (Eds) The Politics of Freshwater: Access, Conflict and Identity. Routledge, Earthscan. Abstract: This chapter makes two assertions. First, one cannot assess, and fully understand the politics of fresh water without attention to inequality, notably […]

Article by Noal Amir on exploring Afghan identity through her grandfather’s pictures

Check out this beautiful post by Noal Amir  on exploring Afghan identities through photos of her grandfather. Noah’s grandfather grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan. He passed her a rich collections of photographs from the 1950s, 60s and 70s Afghanistan. Read the full piece HERE. Noal is a Master of Arts student at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality […]

Congratulations to Graham McDowell!

EDGES member Graham McDowell is a recent receiver of the prestigious Vanier Doctoral Award. See full press release HERE. In his PhD, Graham focuses on vulnerability, adaptation, and transformation with a particular emphasis on governance strategies that promote human well-being and ecological resilience in the context of a changing cryosphere. You can learn more about his […]

Op-ed on Urban Water Resilience by Lucy Rodina and Leila Harris

Lucy Rodina and Leila Harris recently published an opinion piece in The Conversation Africa showcasing ongoing doctoral research in Cape Town South Africa. The piece focuses on what resilience might mean in an African urban context, where high levels of poverty, inequality and mounting climate change impacts are posing numerous challenges. See the full piece HERE. […]

Congratulations to Cynthia Morinville!

EDGES alumna Cynthia Morinville  was recently awarded the prestigious Trudeau Fellowship. Cynthia joins Andrea Marston, also a former EDGES member, as a Trudeau Scholar. Cynthia did her Master’s degree at IRES under the supervision of Leila Harris on water access and governance in peri-urban areas in Accra, Ghana. See our publications page to find Cynthia’s published work. Cynthia is currently […]

New Pub: Rodina and Harris, Water Services, Lived Citizenship, and Notions of the State in Marginalised Urban Spaces

Rodina, L & L. M. Harris (2016). Water Services, Lived Citizenship, and Notions of the State in Marginalised Urban Spaces: The case of Khayelitsha, South Africa. Water Alternatives 9(2): 336-355. **Part of Special Issue: Water, infrastructure and political rule. Guest Editors: Christine Bichsel, Peter Mollinga, Timothy Moss, Julia Obertreis Abstract: In this paper we argue that in South Africa […]

New op-ed by Sameer Shah and Karen Kun in Water Canada

Sameer Shah and Karen Kun, Executive Director and Co-founder of Waterlution, published an opinion piece in Water Canada‘s May/June print edition. The piece describes Waterlution’ WaterCity 2040 project –  the first Canada-wide exercise in scenario planning that built collaborative spaces to enable the public to explore what could happen to Canada’s water infrastructure, environments, and relationships with water by 2040. […]

New Pub: Simms et. al., Navigating the tensions in collaborative watershed governance

Simms, R., Harris, L. M., Joe, N., & Bakker, K. (2016). Navigating the tensions in collaborative watershed governance: Water governance and Indigenous communities in British Columbia, Canada. Geoforum, 73: 6–16. Abstract: First Nations in British Columbia (BC), Canada, have historically been—and largely continue to be—excluded from colonial governments’ decision-making and management frameworks for fresh water. However, in light […]

EVENT: The Socially Responsible University, May 16, 3:30 pm

On May 16, just after the Community Based Research and Water event, Crystal Tremblay , Budd Hall, Vanessa Andreotti and Mark Edwards are hosting The Socially Responsible University How can the 21st century university best contribute to the public good, and make a meaningful impact in addressing global challenges? What relationships should the university strive to build, and what […]

EVENT: Community Based Research and Water – May 16

The Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES–UBC), the Program on Water Governance (UBC) and the UNESCO Chair on Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education (UVic) are pleased to invite you to the workshop Community Based Research and Water on May 16 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm at the Peter Wall […]

New Pub: Rodina, Human right to water in Khayelitsha, South Africa

Rodina, L. (2016). Human right to water in Khayelitsha, South Africa – Lessons from a ‘lived experiences’ perspective. Geoforum 72: 58-66. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.04.003 Abstract: This paper investigates the implementation of the human right to water through water services provision in an impoverished urban area in Khayelitsha, South Africa, through the lens of lived experiences of water access. Narratives of experiences with communal and in-house water services reveal […]

Sameer Shah receives multiple awards!

Sameer was recently awarded the Freda Pagani Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award in IRES, the SSHRC Doctoral Canada Graduate Scholarship, and was selected for the Governor General’s Gold Medal Award as the only awardee at the Master’s level for all of UBC. He also received the Faculty of Science Graduate Prize ($500), recognizing his outstanding Master’s thesis. Congratulations! During his Master’s, Sameer […]

Congratulations to Phil Torio, PhD!

Join us in congratulating EDGES member Phil Torio for the successful completion of the PhD program at IRES! During his doctoral work under the supervision of Dr. Leila Harris, Phil looked at how the water privatization in Manilla has affected the lives of the urban poor, how they have managed to cope with the effects of privatization, and how […]

EVENT: Guest Lecture by Lucy Rodina at ACDI, Cape Town, May 5

EVENT: Guest Lecture by Lucy Rodina at ACDI, Cape Town, May 5

Lucy Rodina is currently in Cape Town, South Africa, for her fieldwork research from April to September 2016. In Cape Town Lucy is visiting the African Climate and Development Initiative, where she will be working in collaboration with Gina Ziervogel and colleagues. Lucy is giving a guest lecture as part of the ACDI brown bag lunch […]

Participatory Videos from Collaborative Work in Accra and Cape Town Are Now Online

In 2014 and 2015, post-doctoral fellow and EDGES member Crystal Tremblay conducted participatory video workshops and community-based research in Site C, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, co-facilitated by Iliso Care Society and the Environmental Monitoring Group. Similar work in Teshie, Accra was done collaboratively with ISODEC and the local assembly (LEKMA), as well as other community partners and civil society organizations.  […]

EVENT: Faculty Lecture by Leila Harris at IRES, Apr 7

On Apr 7, Leila Harris will be giving a talk at IRES seminar series, from 12:30 to 1:30 in the Aquatic Ecosystems Research Lab Building, room 120.  Her talk is titled “Assessing States, Differentiating Citizens: Perspectives on water services and evolving state-society relations in Accra, Ghana and Cape Town, South Africa”. The lecture is available online […]

Noal Amir and participatory filmmaking in West Africa

EDGES member Noal Amir has been working on several projects related to gorillas, including a participatory filmmaking project in West Africa. Her work was recently recognized in the publication of this article on Gorilla Folk filmmaking in the Cross River headwaters. The film on which this article is based was awarded with the Jean Roch award. Congrats to Noal and her […]

New Pub: Harris et al., Intersections of Gender and Water

Harris, L. M., Kleiber, D., Goldin, J., Darkwah, A., and C. Morinville (2016). Intersections of Gender and Water: Comparative approaches to everyday gendered negotiations of water access in underserved areas of Accra, Ghana and Cape Town, South Africa. Journal of Gender Studies. DOI:10.1080/09589236.2016.1150819 Abstract: A large and growing body of literature suggests that women and men often have differentiated […]

New Pub: McDowell et al., Community-level climate change vulnerability research

McDowell, G., Ford. J., Jones. J. (2016) 25 years of community-level climate change vulnerability research: Trends, progress, and future directions. Environmental Research Letters. 11:033001 Abstract: This study systematically identifies, characterizes, and critically evaluates community-level climate change vulnerability assessments published over the last 25 years (n = 274). We find that while the field has advanced considerably […]

EVENT: Sameer Co-hosts “Creating Resilient Water Systems” Workshop

  Sameer co-hosted the Canadian Water Network‘s workshop Creating Resilient Water Systems on February 24, 2016, at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. The workshop – with presentations on decentralized water governance for enhancing community-wide ecosystem services, water metering and pricing, and engineering resilience – focused on building resilience at multiple scales of water […]

EVENT: UBC Centennial Water Workshop, March 8-10, 2016

As part of its Centennial celebration, UBC will host a series of Emerging Research Workshops, including a session on Water Ways: Understanding the Past, Navigating the Future, which will take place on March 8, 9 and 10th, 2016. This workshop is intended to bring together leading water experts from UBC and the global academe to share knowledge and […]

EVENT: Guest Lecture by Julian S. Yates, Feb 4 at IRES

On Feb 4 Julian S.  Yates will be giving a talk about his doctoral research at the IRES seminar series, from 12:30 to 1:30 in the Aquatic Ecosystems Research Lab Building at UBC. His talk is titled “Between metaphor and practice: environmental governance and the decolonial option in the Peruvian Andes”. Abstract: In this presentation I engage with […]

New Pubs by Scott McKenzie

McKenzie, S. (2016) Review: Improving International Investment Agreements by Armand de Mestral (Ed.), Human Rights Review, March, 2016. & Dosas, A., Omstedt, M., Olmsted, P., Iaci, N., Zare S., McKenzie S.,(2016) “Inequality Explained: 7 ways climate change and inequality are connected”, OpenCanada.org, January 14, 2016. Abstract: The potential for droughts, floods, migration and conflict resulting from climate change arewell-publicized. Certain […]

EVENT: Nicole Wilson giving a talk at IRES, Jan 14th

On Jan 14 Nicole Wilson is giving a talk about her doctoral research at the IRES seminar series, from 12:30 to 1:30 in AERL. Her talk is titled ““More precious than gold”: Yukon First Nations and water governance in the context of modern land claims agreements”. Abstract:  Water governance is of critical concern to Yukon First Nations, […]

EDGES contributes to the UBC Design Challenge

Earlier this fall the EDGES team contributed to the design and implementation of the inaugural UBC Design Challenge – new initiative that applies a strategic design method to social, cultural, environmental and economic issues. This cross-campus pilot program experiments with a ‘learn-in-studio’ approach for students, faculty, private and public partners to collaborate, break down and respond to […]

EDGES members receive multiple awards in 2015

Strong finish to 2015 for the members of the EDGES team! Earlier this Fall, Nicole Wilson received the prestigious Vanier Graduate Scholarship. More recently, both Scott McKenzie and Emma Luker received the International WaTERS Graduate Fellowships which will fund their research projects in South Africa.  Emma also received the SSHRC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement which will support […]

New Pub: Ford, McDowell and Pearce, The Adaptation Challenge in the Arctic

Ford, J. D., McDowell, G., & T., Pearce (2015) The adaptation challenge in the Arctic. Nature Climate Change 5(12): 1046–1053. http://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2723 Abstract: It is commonly asserted that human communities in the Arctic are highly vulnerable to climate change, with the magnitude of projected impacts limiting their ability to adapt. At the same time, an increasing number of field […]

New Pub: Harris, Phartiyal, Scott, Peloso, Women Talking about Water

Harris, L., Phartiyal, J., Scott, D. and M. Peloso (2015) Women Talking about Water: Feminist Subjectivities and Intersectional Understandings. Canadian Women’s Studies Journal, Les Cahiers de la Femme, Special Issue on Women and Water, 30(2/3): 15-24 Abstract: (en) Based on focus groups with women in two Canadian provinces, Ontario and B.C, we analyze key themes as […]

Crystal Tremblay’s visit at ILAS featured in the news

Sin, NUI Galway’s online student newspaper, recently published a story on Crystal Tremblay‘s research. Earlier this fall, Crystal attended ILAS to present the methodology and initial findings of the study she conducted using participatory video-based research entitled, ‘Participatory Water Governance in Urban Africa: Building Citizenship through Participatory Video’. Dr Tremblay focused more specifically on how the communities of informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa and […]

Congratulations to Sameer Shah!

Join us in congratulating EDGES member Sameer Shah for his successful completion of the MSc program at IRES! During his Master’s, Sameer worked with Drs. Leila Harris and Hisham Zerriffi on the intersection of farming livelihoods, changes in water access, and adaptation in the Philippines. Sameer’s Master’s thesis is titled “Water variability, livelihoods, and adaptation : a case study […]

New Pub: McKenzie, Governing Transboundary Waters

McKenzie, S. O. (2015) Governing Transboundary Waters: Canada, the United States, and Indigenous Communities. The AAG Review of Books, 3(4): 187-189, DOI: 10.1080/2325548X.2015.1077435

Graham McDowell at the Mountains of Our Future Earth Conference

On October 7th, EDGES and Program on Water Governance member Graham McDowell presented at the Mountains of our Future Earth conference in Perth, Scotland. The conference was part of the larger Future Earth programme, which aims to develop knowledge for responding effectively to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change. This event sought to advance […]

UBC Dialogues event on water

Great turn out last night at the UBC Dialogues panel on the state of our water resources, featuring (from left to right on the photo) CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe, Vice Chair of the Canadian Water Network Margaret Catley-Carlson, UBC Geography Professor Simon Donner, filmmaker Damien Gillis and  UBC IRES Professor and EDGES member Leila Harris. […]

Blog Post by Scott McKenzie on the Human Right to Water

Scott McKenzie, who has a Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa, recently wrote a blog post on the legal background of the human right to water. “The human right to water has been making steady progress.  The right has become a fixture of international law and state constitutions frequently include the right.  Within a framework […]

New Pub: Branch and Kleiber, Should we call them fishers or fishermen?

Branch, T. A and D. Kleiber (2015). Should we call them fishers or fishermen? Fish and Fisheries, DOI: 10.1111/faf.12130 Abstract: ‘Fishermen’ and the gender-neutral ‘fishers’ are the most common terms used to describe people who fish in the English language. However, there is a considerable debate as to which term is most appropriate. In academic journals, usage of ‘fishers’ […]

New Pub: Morales, My pipes say I am powerful

Morales, M. C. (2015) My pipes say I am powerful: belonging and class as constructed through our sewers. WIREs Water. DOI: 10.1002/wat2.1108 Abstract: This review examines the social and political roots and ongoing implications of centralized, waterborne sewerage. This system has served as a marker of class, a signal of wealth and political power, and a mechanism […]

New Pub: Roa-García and Brown, Assessing equity and sustainability of water allocation in Colombia

Roa-García, M.C. and S. Brown (2015). Assessing equity and sustainability of water allocation in Colombia. Local Environment. DOI: 10.1080/13549839.2015.1070816 Abstract: Based on the national database of 28,104 water rights (concessions) granted in Colombia, this paper presents an analysis of how the principles of equity and sustainability are reflected in water allocation. Concessions appear to be an exclusionary mechanism since […]

Congratulations to Nicole and Scott!

The EDGES team is happy to announce that two of our members have recently received awards for their academic achievements. Nicole Wilson received the prestigious UBC Killam doctoral award for 2015-2016 while Scott McKenzie received the C.D. Howe Graduate Fellowship in Public Policy and Walter W Jeffrey Memorial Scholarship for Water Resources. Congrats to both of you and good luck in […]

New Pub: Harris, Rodina and Morinville, Revisiting the Human Right to Water

Harris, L., Rodina, L. &  C. Morinville (2015). Revisiting the Human Right to Water from an Environmental Justice Lens. Politics, Groups and Identities 3(4): 660-665. Abstract: In this essay we investigate the discourses around the Human Right to Water (HRW) and the growing acceptance of the importance of this right in environmental justice (EJ) agendas. We argue that there is […]

EVENT: People of the Land: Dialogue series with the Mapuche Territorial Alliance

People of the Land:  Dialogue series with the Mapuche Territorial Alliance September 22-23, 2015 UBC | Unceded Coast Salish Territory People of the Land: Dialogue series with the Mapuche Territorial Alliance will bring together two Indigenous leaders from the Mapuche Nation –Alberto Curamil and Miguel Melin– with Indigenous activists and scholars from North America to […]

EDGES welcomes new team members!

The EDGES team is pleased to welcome four new members this Fall – Julian S. Yates, Graham McDowell, Emma Luker and Noal Amir. Julian is a Postdoctoral Fellow at IRES, working on the rollout of small-scale water filtration facilities among BC’s First Nations communities – an approach that gained political expediency due to the recently introduced Water […]

Sameer Shah joins SYPC as a regional representative

Sameer recently bacame a Pacific “Regional Representative” for the Canadian Water Network’s Student and Young Professional Committee. Regional representatives are responsible for both organizing and participating in Canadian Water Network events held in the area. Amongst the benefits of organizing and participating in events, this 18 month position offers an opportunity to collaborate with water researchers and […]

New book on Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships

We are happy to share the recent UNESCO Chair on Community-based Research open-source publication “Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships: Global Perspectives‘, co-published by PRIA and University of Victoria Press. Here is an excerpt from the foreword: “Research partnerships are key to ensuring a dynamic and collaborative research agenda and to breaking free from traditional disciplinary and other boundaries […]

Lucy Rodina at the ISEE conference in Kiel, Germany

Lucy Rodina recently presented at the annual conference of the International Society for Environmental Ethics, held in Kiel, Germany from July 22 to 23, 2015.  At the conference, Lucy represented both the EDGES research collaborative as well as the Water Ethics Network in which she has been involved since 2012 as a social media outreach manager. Lucy presented […]

New Pub: Tremblay and Jayme, Community knowledge co-creation through participatory video

Tremblay, C and B. Jayme (2015). Community knowledge co-creation through participatory video. Journal of Action Research 13(3): 298-314. Abstract: This article describes the process and outcomes of a participatory video project with 22 catadore/as (‘recyclers’) from recycling cooperatives in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, Brazil. During a week-long workshop (April 2008), leaders from participating cooperatives were […]

Upcoming talk by Crystal Tremblay on water governance in urban Africa

Crystal Tremblay will be presenting at an upcoming event (Sept 21) on Water Governance in Urban Africa: Building Citizenship Through Participatory Video at the University of Brighton. She will be covering two topics: 1. Book launch ‘Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships: Global Perspectives’ 2. Water Governance in Urban Africa – researching using participatory video Crystal will […]

New Pub: Dunn, Harris and Bakker, Microbial risk governance in Canada

Dunn, G., Harris, L. and K. Bakker (2015) Microbial Risk Governance: Challenges and Opportunities in Canada. Canadian Water Resources Journal 40(3): 273-249 Abstract: This paper analyzes the barriers and opportunities that decentralized water governance regimes pose to effective microbial risk assessment and management for drinking and recreational water quality. The paper presents a case study of Canada (a country […]

Annotated Bibliography on Indigenous Water Governance in BC by Rosie Simms

As part of her work for the WEPGN project and PoWG, EDGES alumna Rosie Simms prepared a new annotated bibliography on indigenous water governance in BC. This annotated bibliography summarizes literature on key topic areas relating to Indigenous water governance, with a primary geographic focus on British Columbia and Canada. This is a critical thematic […]

Nicole Wilson at the IASC conference in Edmonton

Nicole Wilson (PhD student in IRES) and Jody Inkster (Environmental Manager at the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council and a Ross River Dena Council citizen) presented on Community-Based Water Quality Monitoring among Alaska Native Tribes and First Nations in the Yukon River Basin at the 15th Biennial Global Conference for the International Association for the […]

EDGES welcomes new student – Emma Luker

The EDGES collective is pleased to welcome a new member – Emma Luker! Emma is starting her Master of Arts program in Resource Management and Environmental Studies in the Fall, funded by NSERC’s Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship. She will be working under the supervisorship of Drs. Leila Harris and Mark Johnson. Emma graduated […]

EDGES welcomes 3 new summer research assistants

This summer, three new research assistants are joining the EDGES team. Welcome Iesha, Andrew and Jesse! Iesha Iesha Yue Wan Zhao Yuan is an undergraduate student in Bio-resource/Environmental Engineering at McGill university, studying environmental engineering with a focus on water resources. At McGill, she has worked in a bio-char research and in water-soil quality lab. […]

Rosie Simms awarded the Freda Pagani Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award

Congratulations to EDGES alumna Rosie Simms for the outstanding Master’s thesis award! The Freda Pagani Award have been endowed by family and friends for graduate students in Resource Management and Environmental Studies (RMES) for outstanding thesis work. Rosie did her Master’s work under the supervision of Leila Harris on water governance in First Nations communities […]

New Publication: Harris, Hegemonic Water and Rethinking Natures Otherwise

Harris, L. (2015) Hegemonic Water and Rethinking Natures Otherwise. In: W. Harcourt and I. L. Nelson (Eds) Practicing Feminist Political Ecologies. Zed Books: London, pp. 157-181. Destined to transform its field, this volume features some of the most exciting feminist scholars and activists working within feminist political ecology, including Giovanna Di Chiro, Dianne Rocheleau, Catherine Walsh and […]

New Book: A Political Ecology of Women, Water and Global Environmental Change

A Political Ecology of Women, Water and Global Environmental Change came out on March 11, 2015. The book is edited by S. Buechler and A M S Hanson, with foreword by Leila Harris. This volume is a excellent read for everyone interested in feminist politicly ecology approaches to water governance and global environmental change. This edited […]

New Publication: Harris, Deconstructing the Map after 25 Years

A piece by Leila Harris was published in the most recent Special Issue of the journal Cartographica on “Deconstructing the Map”: 25 Years On. This special issue marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of J.B. Harley’s “Deconstructing the Map” (1989), which has had a major influence in the fields of critical cartography, the history of cartography, and […]

EDGES work featured in SUPE

Situated Urban Political Ecologies (or SUPE) is a research collective and a platform for research projects and activities that relate to situated ecologies and contested ecologies viewed through the lens of urbanization. The work of this collective draws on the field of political ecology and related disciplines (e.g., human and critical geography, STS, and environmental history) concerned […]

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