Jeff Birchall
Biographic Data
| ID | 1349645 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jeff Birchall |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jeff |
| FAMILY NAME | Birchall |
| SIGNATURE | BIRCHALL J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Alberta |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4508-6720 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 61 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Transforming Education in the Arctic: Co-creation, Decolonization, and Participatory Approaches
Rapid environmental change, social inequities, and colonial legacies are all factors that drive a pressing need for more meaningful and collaborative education in the Arctic that supports community resilience and self-determination. Meaningful and inclusive education strategies in the circumpolar context are challenging due to both the colonial history and top-down approaches often used in practice. While each Arctic region has its own cultural c…
Climate change adaptation and emergency management: The influence of uneven devolution on community resilience
Climate change is driving more frequent and intense emergency events, and the impact is being felt most at the community level. Devolution is an increasingly common governance approach in climate change adaptation (CCA) and emergency management (EM), shifting responsibility to address climate-related challenges from higher to local-level governments. However, this process is often uneven, leaving local governments with inconsistent authority and …
Local planning for climate induced relocation: A systematic review
Adapting to environmental hazards in Norway: Confusion over legal responsibility results in stalled action and greater risk of disaster
In Norway, legal responsibility for adapting to environmental hazards is divided between landowners, municipalities and the national government. However, specific responsibilities often break down in practice. In this short paper, we adopt a legal dogmatic approach, along with a literature review, to better understand legal responsibility for adapting to quick-clay landslides in Norway, which are increasing in occurrence across the country due to…
Why history matters to planning: Climate change, colonialism & maladaptation
Preparing for the future remains an enigma: Climate change is worsening and communities are already overwhelmed by disastrous impacts. Adaptation planning has the potential to prepare communities, yet adaptations are often maladaptive, having the unintended effect of increasing vulnerability. Maladaptation begets maladaptation, leaving communities trapped in maladaptive path dependencies (MPDs). Tracing maladaptation backward in history reveals h…
Investigating the extent and quality of health-focused climate adaptation planning: Insights from Western Canadian cities
Climate change is resulting in morbidity and mortality across all regions of the globe. As temperatures continue to rise, the threat to health grows. Regardless of potential mitigation measures, some degree of warming in the near future is unavoidable. As a result, climate adaptation strategies targeted to protecting human health are essential. Local governments have a key role to play in health-focused adaptation, given their strong understandin…
Factors contributing to climate adaptation lag in practice: Insights from local and territorial government interactions
Local governments across the globe are facing worsening climate impacts. In response, many decision-makers have initiated processes of planning for climate change adaptation. However, implementation frequently lags in practice. Scholarship exploring adaptation lag often focuses on the role of governance, specifically as it relates to interactions between various common levels of government (e. g., provincial, state, federal). However, there is a …
Sometimes, I just want to scream”: Institutional barriers limiting adaptive capacity and resilience to extreme events
Community resilience demands functioning infrastructure and emergency management. • Infrastructure deficit increases impact severity during extreme events. • Emergency management requires high adaptive capacity and effective infrastructure. • Hierarchical governance limits local-level adaptive capacity. • Development-driven decision-making compromises community resilience. Climate change is increasing atmospheric river risk, requiring communities…
Regional climate change adaptation planning in Canada: Actors and their articulation
Climate change governance presents challenges and most of the responsibility for it is offloaded to local governments often ill‐equipped to deal with it. In Canada, where climate extremes are on the rise, regional adaptation governance structures have emerged as an avenue for more efficient adaptation. Governance at this scale has the potential to mutualize expertise and means, to involve local population, and favour a vertical integration of the…
Exploring the modifying effects of adaptive capacity on resilience to climate change across 4 coastal cities in British Columbia, Canada
Coastal communities are particularly at risk from the intensifying impacts of climate change and must act quickly to implement adaptation measures to enhance resilience. Adaptive capacity is recognized to have a modifying effect on resilience. Understanding the combination of factors that affect adaptive capacity is essential for prioritizing actions necessary to respond to existing and predicted impacts, and thus reduce vulnerability. In this st…
Climate Change Adaptation Planning: Breaking Down Barriers through Comprehensive Educational Frameworks
The planning profession sits at the forefront of local climate adaptation action. Yet, novel challenges exist for coordinating and implementing comprehensive actions. Through key actor interviews, this qualitative study examines the role of planners in navigating these challenges. In order to understand how planners are being prepared for this role, attention to how climate adaptation features in required courses across accredited planning progra…
Strengthening health‐focused climate adaptation in Canada: Barriers and interventions
Climate change poses a dire threat to human health. Within Canada, extreme heat events are contributing to cardiovascular disease, poor air quality is causing respiratory distress, and changing precipitation patterns are resulting in the spread of vector‐borne illness. To minimize these negative health outcomes, adaptation strategies targeted to protecting health are essential. Yet, despite a recognition of this need across levels of government, …
Key elements of defensible space land use bylaw provisions in wildland-urban interface municipalities of Alberta, Canada
Denial and discretion as a governance process: How actor perceptions of risk and responsibility hinder adaptation to climate change
Climate change adaptation: How short-term political priorities trample public well-being
Arctic and northern community governance: The need for local planning and design as resilience strategy
Growing resilient: The potential of urban agriculture for increasing food security and improving earthquake recovery
The influence of regional strategic policy on municipal climate adaptation planning
This study examines the extent and quality of climate adaptation integration within strategic plans of local governments in British Columbia, Canada. Strategic plans (n = 39) were assessed using plan content analysis in order to understand whether regional planning leads to adaptation action by municipalities. Framed through an institutional resilience lens, we find that regional policy guidance is critical for initiating the uptake of municipal …
Wildfire risk and response in Jasper National Park, Alberta: Application of an adaptation readiness framework
Environmental change associated with warmer temperatures is creating unprecedented conditions in natural regions and ecosystems. In Jasper National Park, Alberta, climate change, historical fire management practices, and the mountain pine beetle infestation are combining to increase the risk of a major wildfire. The intent of this short viewpoint is to provide a primer for decision makers. The application of an adaptation readiness framework high…
Social vulnerability and climate change adaptation: The critical importance of moving beyond technocratic policy approaches
Climate change adaptation policy and practice: The role of agents, institutions and systems
The built environment in a winter climate: Improving university campus design for student wellbeing
Like urban environments, the campus built environment can influence general wellbeing of students. At the same time, campuses are their own unique form and need to be analysed in their own way. This study identifies elements of the campus built environment that contribute to student wellbeing, including urban design qualities, considerations of safety and accessibility, and winter design strategies. Using the University of Alberta North Campus as…
Coastal communities in the Circumpolar North and the need for sustainable climate adaptation approaches
Coastal climate adaptation planning and evolutionary governance: Insights from Homer, Alaska
Resilience, Reinvention and Transition during and after Quarantine
Quarantine measures and the crises triggering them are never neutral in the sense that a return to the past is impossible. These measures are also a signal of other things like systemic risks and weaknesses. A period of quarantine is also a thing in and by itself. What happens after quarantine is thus shaped both by the state of the social-ecological system preceding quarantine and by what happened during quarantine. The selectivities introduced …
Climate change adaptation: How short-term political priorities trample public well-being
The influence of regional strategic policy on municipal climate adaptation planning
This study examines the extent and quality of climate adaptation integration within strategic plans of local governments in British Columbia, Canada. Strategic plans (n = 39) were assessed using plan content analysis in order to understand whether regional planning leads to adaptation action by municipalities. Framed through an institutional resilience lens, we find that regional policy guidance is critical for initiating the uptake of municipal …
Social vulnerability and climate change adaptation: The critical importance of moving beyond technocratic policy approaches
Climate change adaptation policy and practice: The role of agents, institutions and systems
Termination Theory and National Climate Change Mitigation Programs: The Case of New Zealand
In 2008 New Zealand (NZ) changed from a Labour-led to a National-led government, and this resulted in a shift to government's carbon emission mitigation strategy, including the abandonment of the Communities for Climate Protection (CCP) and the Carbon Neutral Public Service (CNPS) programs. Using deLeon's seminal model for program termination, the objective of this research is to determine why NZ's newly elected government discontinued these init…
Sometimes, I just want to scream”: Institutional barriers limiting adaptive capacity and resilience to extreme events
Community resilience demands functioning infrastructure and emergency management. • Infrastructure deficit increases impact severity during extreme events. • Emergency management requires high adaptive capacity and effective infrastructure. • Hierarchical governance limits local-level adaptive capacity. • Development-driven decision-making compromises community resilience. Climate change is increasing atmospheric river risk, requiring communities…
Denial and discretion as a governance process: How actor perceptions of risk and responsibility hinder adaptation to climate change
Thinning sea ice and thawing permafrost: Climate change adaptation planning in Nome, Alaska
Climate change is among the most critical challenges facing local government decision-makers in the north. Yet while the risk is clear, with climate impacts occurring there more rapidly than many regions on Earth, integrated policy and planning for climate adaptation often remains a low priority for decision-makers. In an effort to extend the discussion and contribute to scholarship in this area, this paper explores climate change stressors and p…
Arctic and northern community governance: The need for local planning and design as resilience strategy
Resilience, Reinvention and Transition during and after Quarantine
Quarantine measures and the crises triggering them are never neutral in the sense that a return to the past is impossible. These measures are also a signal of other things like systemic risks and weaknesses. A period of quarantine is also a thing in and by itself. What happens after quarantine is thus shaped both by the state of the social-ecological system preceding quarantine and by what happened during quarantine. The selectivities introduced …
Qualitative Inquiry as a Method to Extract Personal Narratives: Approach to Research into Organizational Climate Change Mitigation
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that qualitative inquiry is highly effective at facilitating the extraction of personal narratives of senior managers in the New Zealand (NZ) public sector. Specifically, in this article I lay out the method used to develop theme-based narratives from semi-structured interviews with senior managers responsible for the delivery of the Communities for Climate Protection and the Carbon Neutral Public Ser…
Investigating the extent and quality of health-focused climate adaptation planning: Insights from Western Canadian cities
Climate change is resulting in morbidity and mortality across all regions of the globe. As temperatures continue to rise, the threat to health grows. Regardless of potential mitigation measures, some degree of warming in the near future is unavoidable. As a result, climate adaptation strategies targeted to protecting human health are essential. Local governments have a key role to play in health-focused adaptation, given their strong understandin…
Factors contributing to climate adaptation lag in practice: Insights from local and territorial government interactions
Local governments across the globe are facing worsening climate impacts. In response, many decision-makers have initiated processes of planning for climate change adaptation. However, implementation frequently lags in practice. Scholarship exploring adaptation lag often focuses on the role of governance, specifically as it relates to interactions between various common levels of government (e. g., provincial, state, federal). However, there is a …
Climate Change Adaptation Planning: Breaking Down Barriers through Comprehensive Educational Frameworks
The planning profession sits at the forefront of local climate adaptation action. Yet, novel challenges exist for coordinating and implementing comprehensive actions. Through key actor interviews, this qualitative study examines the role of planners in navigating these challenges. In order to understand how planners are being prepared for this role, attention to how climate adaptation features in required courses across accredited planning progra…
Growing resilient: The potential of urban agriculture for increasing food security and improving earthquake recovery
The built environment in a winter climate: Improving university campus design for student wellbeing
Like urban environments, the campus built environment can influence general wellbeing of students. At the same time, campuses are their own unique form and need to be analysed in their own way. This study identifies elements of the campus built environment that contribute to student wellbeing, including urban design qualities, considerations of safety and accessibility, and winter design strategies. Using the University of Alberta North Campus as…
Climate change resilience in the Canadian Arctic: The need for collaboration in the face of a changing landscape
Human‐induced changes to global climate have become increasingly difficult to ignore in recent years. As the frequency and severity of extreme weather events increases, the impacts on both natural and human systems are becoming difficult to manage with the current policies. In Canada, one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change is the Arctic, where temperatures are rising at a rate two to three times that of the global average. Warmer se…
Mixed Methods Research: A Comprehensive Approach for Study into the New Zealand Voluntary Carbon Market
Climate change and solutions to solving this wicked problem require a mixed methods research approach that draws on quantitative and qualitative inquiry together. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the applicability (and effectiveness) of a mixed methods approach applied to research into the voluntary carbon market (VCM), a key path available for organisations electing to offset their carbon emissions, in New Zealand. The mixed methods…
Canadian Sovereignty: Climate Change and Politics in the Arctic
The Canadian Arctic Archipelago, as a defining landscape of the Canadian persona, quickly becomes a flash point when international politics are at issue. The effects of climate change on the archipelago are no exception to this rule. The Canadian Arctic as a whole is experiencing a warming trend as a result of climate change. The political interest of this trend lies in what Canada could lose if the ice of the archipelago disappears. Canada has m…
The climate modelling primer
Interest in the relationship between atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increases in global temperature have featured prominently in contemporary scholarship. The notion that GHGs in th
Qualitative Inquiry as a Method to Extract Personal Narratives: Approach to Research into Organizational Climate Change Mitigation
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that qualitative inquiry is highly effective at facilitating the extraction of personal narratives of senior managers in the New Zealand (NZ) public sector. Specifically, in this article I lay out the method used to develop theme-based narratives from semi-structured interviews with senior managers responsible for the delivery of the Communities for Climate Protection and the Carbon Neutral Public Ser…
Termination Theory and National Climate Change Mitigation Programs: The Case of New Zealand
In 2008 New Zealand (NZ) changed from a Labour-led to a National-led government, and this resulted in a shift to government's carbon emission mitigation strategy, including the abandonment of the Communities for Climate Protection (CCP) and the Carbon Neutral Public Service (CNPS) programs. Using deLeon's seminal model for program termination, the objective of this research is to determine why NZ's newly elected government discontinued these init…
Mixed Methods Research: A Comprehensive Approach for Study into the New Zealand Voluntary Carbon Market
Climate change and solutions to solving this wicked problem require a mixed methods research approach that draws on quantitative and qualitative inquiry together. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the applicability (and effectiveness) of a mixed methods approach applied to research into the voluntary carbon market (VCM), a key path available for organisations electing to offset their carbon emissions, in New Zealand. The mixed methods…
Thinning sea ice and thawing permafrost: Climate change adaptation planning in Nome, Alaska
Climate change is among the most critical challenges facing local government decision-makers in the north. Yet while the risk is clear, with climate impacts occurring there more rapidly than many regions on Earth, integrated policy and planning for climate adaptation often remains a low priority for decision-makers. In an effort to extend the discussion and contribute to scholarship in this area, this paper explores climate change stressors and p…
Coastal communities in the Circumpolar North and the need for sustainable climate adaptation approaches
Coastal climate adaptation planning and evolutionary governance: Insights from Homer, Alaska
Resilience, Reinvention and Transition during and after Quarantine
Quarantine measures and the crises triggering them are never neutral in the sense that a return to the past is impossible. These measures are also a signal of other things like systemic risks and weaknesses. A period of quarantine is also a thing in and by itself. What happens after quarantine is thus shaped both by the state of the social-ecological system preceding quarantine and by what happened during quarantine. The selectivities introduced …
Climate change resilience in the Canadian Arctic: The need for collaboration in the face of a changing landscape
Human‐induced changes to global climate have become increasingly difficult to ignore in recent years. As the frequency and severity of extreme weather events increases, the impacts on both natural and human systems are becoming difficult to manage with the current policies. In Canada, one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change is the Arctic, where temperatures are rising at a rate two to three times that of the global average. Warmer se…
Social vulnerability and climate change adaptation: The critical importance of moving beyond technocratic policy approaches
Climate change adaptation policy and practice: The role of agents, institutions and systems
The built environment in a winter climate: Improving university campus design for student wellbeing
Like urban environments, the campus built environment can influence general wellbeing of students. At the same time, campuses are their own unique form and need to be analysed in their own way. This study identifies elements of the campus built environment that contribute to student wellbeing, including urban design qualities, considerations of safety and accessibility, and winter design strategies. Using the University of Alberta North Campus as…
Arctic and northern community governance: The need for local planning and design as resilience strategy
Growing resilient: The potential of urban agriculture for increasing food security and improving earthquake recovery
The influence of regional strategic policy on municipal climate adaptation planning
This study examines the extent and quality of climate adaptation integration within strategic plans of local governments in British Columbia, Canada. Strategic plans (n = 39) were assessed using plan content analysis in order to understand whether regional planning leads to adaptation action by municipalities. Framed through an institutional resilience lens, we find that regional policy guidance is critical for initiating the uptake of municipal …
Wildfire risk and response in Jasper National Park, Alberta: Application of an adaptation readiness framework
Environmental change associated with warmer temperatures is creating unprecedented conditions in natural regions and ecosystems. In Jasper National Park, Alberta, climate change, historical fire management practices, and the mountain pine beetle infestation are combining to increase the risk of a major wildfire. The intent of this short viewpoint is to provide a primer for decision makers. The application of an adaptation readiness framework high…
Key elements of defensible space land use bylaw provisions in wildland-urban interface municipalities of Alberta, Canada
Denial and discretion as a governance process: How actor perceptions of risk and responsibility hinder adaptation to climate change
Climate change adaptation: How short-term political priorities trample public well-being
Climate Change Adaptation Planning: Breaking Down Barriers through Comprehensive Educational Frameworks
The planning profession sits at the forefront of local climate adaptation action. Yet, novel challenges exist for coordinating and implementing comprehensive actions. Through key actor interviews, this qualitative study examines the role of planners in navigating these challenges. In order to understand how planners are being prepared for this role, attention to how climate adaptation features in required courses across accredited planning progra…
Strengthening health‐focused climate adaptation in Canada: Barriers and interventions
Climate change poses a dire threat to human health. Within Canada, extreme heat events are contributing to cardiovascular disease, poor air quality is causing respiratory distress, and changing precipitation patterns are resulting in the spread of vector‐borne illness. To minimize these negative health outcomes, adaptation strategies targeted to protecting health are essential. Yet, despite a recognition of this need across levels of government, …
Local planning for climate induced relocation: A systematic review
Adapting to environmental hazards in Norway: Confusion over legal responsibility results in stalled action and greater risk of disaster
In Norway, legal responsibility for adapting to environmental hazards is divided between landowners, municipalities and the national government. However, specific responsibilities often break down in practice. In this short paper, we adopt a legal dogmatic approach, along with a literature review, to better understand legal responsibility for adapting to quick-clay landslides in Norway, which are increasing in occurrence across the country due to…
Why history matters to planning: Climate change, colonialism & maladaptation
Preparing for the future remains an enigma: Climate change is worsening and communities are already overwhelmed by disastrous impacts. Adaptation planning has the potential to prepare communities, yet adaptations are often maladaptive, having the unintended effect of increasing vulnerability. Maladaptation begets maladaptation, leaving communities trapped in maladaptive path dependencies (MPDs). Tracing maladaptation backward in history reveals h…
Climate change (20 works) · Geography (19 works) · Environmental resource management (18 works) · Political science (18 works) · Environmental planning (17 works) · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration (14 works) · Economics (14 works) · Business (12 works) · Ecology (11 works) · Psychology (11 works)