Canadian Geographer-Geographe Canadien最新文献

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 adaptation process. From selected examples of regional collaboration on climate change adaptation, in this short viewpoint paper, we identify some factors favouring such initiatives. The presence of “boundary organizations” such as research centres or non-governmental organizations that can act as catalysts, is a predictor in all our cases and has been proposed in literature before. Funding opportunities can of course offer a strong incentive for various actors to get together. Other factors such as geographical or cultural particularities can shape communities’ response to the stress of climate change. More research should be led into understanding these factors and translate them into policies favouring the emergence of regional adaptation instances, especially in rural coastal zones, in Canada.

School buses are a prevalent mode of school travel that may negatively affect students’ academic performance due to numerous factors, including longer commutes. These extended travel times can introduce or exacerbate mental and physical stressors, including air pollution exposure and bullying, while reducing opportunities for health-promoting activities like physical activity and sleep. While a few researchers have explored the effects of school bus transportation on academic achievement, the research is limited. In this study, we used data from two major Canadian cities, Toronto and Ottawa, to investigate the relationship between the proportion of students commuting by bus to and from school and the percentage meeting standards on standardized tests. We employed beta regression models to analyze performance in reading, writing, math, and literacy across Grades 3, 6, 9, and 10 while controlling for family and income variables that may influence school travel mode and student achievement. Our findings indicate a significant inverse correlation between school bus transportation and academic achievement for Grade 10 literacy. Longer commutes appear to impair academic performance, given that Grade 10 students presumably spend more time on the bus than younger students. Notably, the negative effects on literacy outcomes are greater than on math.

De-centralization has depleted the vitality of mid-size city downtowns for years. Growing the downtown residential population will help achieve smart growth and strategic infill objectives. Demand for a downtown residential lifestyle can animate many facets of revitalization (e.g., economic, social, cultural, public space). Resident views on factors that they believe would grow the demand for living downtown is the focus of this article. A survey and focus groups were used to learn how to enhance Downtown Saskatoon as a place to live. Findings indicate a convenient lifestyle close to work, school, retail, services, and nightlife, and preferably housing within a couple of blocks of the river valley, make Downtown Saskatoon desirable. Concerns with safety, lack of food stores, and absence of a sense of shared purpose among residents, businesses, and institutions downtown are barriers. The residential context is potentially quite appealing downtown, and demand can be cultivated if downtown's efforts at revitalization are choreographed by a collaborative multi-sectoral network of actors with strong leadership.

Many landscapes are on the edge literally, particularly here on the Atlantic Coast of Canada. But landscapes everywhere are on the edge metaphorically: on the edge of change. Tackling the collective challenges we face, and redefining a “good life” in these new circumstances, will likely transform the places and landscapes that we care about. Yet change is hard and it is felt unevenly across space and social strata. We often instinctively feel that the landscapes of the present should dominate the future—an idea I've been calling “climax thinking”—but in many cases, those current landscape settings solve old problems and cause new ones. Drawing on recent empirical Atlantic research about renewable energy and coastal adaptation, this lecture explores some of the cultural shifts required to reimagine our landscapes and to meet the challenges ahead, identifying key roles for geographers along the way.