Keahna studies how places interconnect and constantly change, along with the people who are involved with them, with the goal of better planning for nature-based adaptations.
“It is time for the conversation to shift away from what separates people from nature and embrace the more realistic, messy complexity of peoples’ interconnectedness with nature.”
@KeahnaMargeson
Along Canadian coasts, storm surges and flooding have gone from breaking news to seasonal norms. Phenomena Canadians have historically thought of as freak natural disasters are becoming regular predictable occurrences. Our go-to solution to protect property and infrastructure is to build walls to block wave energy — walls that have become ineffective and unaffordable. It’s time to look beyond the status […]
For the past two months we’ve discussed how it can be uncomfortable to have conversations about climate change. A major takeaway was that we all care about the places we’re connected to, and having open, honest conversations about those places and why we care about them is a great way to connect with others and […]
If you live in Atlantic Canada like I do, you know this year has been filled with extreme weather and storm events, starting with abnormally dry weather, then fires, floods, more flooding, and a hurricane. And Atlantic Canadians are not alone. Around the world there have been increased climate anomalies, ranging from Antarctic sea ice […]
I was having lunch with friends a while back and when the conversation shifted to my research. I explained how I was studying the way coastal communities perceive nature-based infrastructure as a possible replacement for hard infrastructure in areas experiencing flooding and erosion. I mentioned that the increase in flooding and erosion was due in […]
A quote attributed to Greek writer Aesop goes something like, “there are two sides to every story, it is well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either”. In the context of nature based coastal adaptation, there are at least three sides to every story: that of the natural environment, the people and […]
This blog post was originally going to be about social license for nature-based coastal adaptation. However, recent events have led me to reflect on the term social license, and I’d like to discuss some thoughts with you here first. We’ll reflect on and question the use of the term ‘social license’ this month, then jump […]
License (noun) li·cense: a right or permission granted by a competent authority (as of a government or a business) to engage in some business or occupation, do some act, or engage in some transaction which would be unlawful without such right or permission. Also: a document, plate, or tag evidencing a license granted (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). […]
In last month’s blog post, we talked about nature-based coastal adaptation as an innovative solution for increasingly severe coastal flooding, erosion, and storm surges. On one side of the solution spectrum, you have hard infrastructure. Hard infrastructure is made up of stone and concrete that degrades over time and creates problems by diverting wave energy […]
The news is inundated with stories about water. In the Canadian Prairies and parts of British Columbia there is too little water, and farmers are being forced to reconsider their crops and cattle in response to prolonged droughts. In other parts of the country there is too much water, as river banks, lakeshores, and coastlines […]
You might have heard the phrase, “it’s like putting a square peg in a round hole.” The saying speaks to the idea that some things simply do not fit well together, the same way square corners prevent a peg from going into a round hole. What if you reversed the shapes, and tried to put […]
