Math for Complex Climate Challenges Workshop

Building on two successful Fields Mathematics for Climate Change (MfCC) workshops held last year, the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI) partnered with the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences to organize a 4-day workshop, “Math for Complex Climate Challenges” at the University of Waterloo, from May 1 - 4^th, 2023.  Submissions for short talks and/or interpretive/interactive art projects were welcomed until April 14th - please see the participation call for more details and submission instructions.

The workshop sought to bring together climate researchers and applied mathematicians (broadly defined) to identify major Canadian climate policy and research challenges for which additional state-of-the-art and emerging mathematical methods would add value - in short, to match mathematicians with skills and interest, and climate researchers with applied problems.  

The workshop also aimed to:

• Serve as a “soft launch” for the developing Fields Mathematics for Climate Change (MfCC) Network;
• Facilitate interdisciplinary cross-communication and fertilization in select climate research and mathematical methods topics;
• Identify research questions where collaboration would add value; and
• Lay the groundwork for one or more large interdisciplinary grant proposals

The workshop program aimed to pair instructional sessions on key aspects of climate research and mathematical methods that support them for the mornings of the first three days.  Afternoons included break out sessions with topical 15-minute talks followed by research question brainstorming; each session had complementary climate research and math methods talks. The morning of Day 4 focused on emergent topics from the research brainstorming sessions and research question development. 

May 1, 2023 (Day One):

Welcome remarks from Kumar Marty, Director of Fields Institute

"Complexity, Uncertainty and Emergence: Governing Social and Natural Systems under Climate Change" - Dr. Sarah Burch, University of Waterloo

"Complexity on Earth: Understanding Cross-Scale Systems and Feedbacks" - Francis Poulin, Professor, Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo

Breakout Room One: Urban Climate Challenges

"Individual Flood Adaptation Behaviours" - Bouchra Nasri, Assistant Professor, Social and Preventive Medicine, Université de Montréal

"Challenges and Opportunities in the use of Agent-Based Simulations for Post-Disaster Recovery Simulations" - Rodrigo Costa, Assistant Professor, Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo

"Flood Coincidence Analysis Using Copula" - Poornima Unnikrishnan, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo

Breakout Room Two: Aquatic Ecosystems

(Slides only) Frederic Guichard, Professor, Biology, McGill University (slides only)

"Bridging the Gap between Machine Learning and Aquatic Ecosystems" - Guillaume Durand, Science Lead for Laboratories Canada ASEC, National Research Council

"A Relational View of Systems Complexity Through Co-Developed Scenarios of Sea Otter Return" - Ella Kari Muhl, PhD Candidate, University of Waterloo

Breakout Room One: Climate Modelling

Chris Fletcher, Associate Professor, Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo

Andrea Scott, Associate Professor, Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo

Julio Valdes, Research Officer, National Research Council

Daniel Dylewsky, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo

Breakout Room Two: "The Graph Model for Conflict Resolution (GMCR): Reflections on Three Decades of Development" - Invited talk with Keith W. Hipel, O.C., Professor of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo

May 2, 2023 (Day Two):

Welcome remarks with Vanessa Schweizer, Director of WICI and Mallika Das, Head of Strategy at Fields Institute

"Wetlands - Scale and Connectivity" - Nandita Bass, Professor of Global Water Sustainability and Ecohydrology, University of Waterloo

"Modelling Coupled Social-Climate systems and using Data-driven Dynamical Systems to Predict Climate Tipping Points" - Chris Bauch, Professor of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo and Madhur Anand, Professor of Environmental Science, University of Guelph

Breakout Room One: Complex Coupled Human-Natural Systems Modelling

Taylor Anderson, Assistant Professor, Geography and Geoinformation Science, George Mason University

Rebecca Saari, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo

Roberto Guglielmi, Assistant Professor, Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo

Breakout Room Two: Energy Networks; Supply Chains-Design and Resilience

Sajjad Ghaemi, Research Scientist, National Research Council

Jianjun Yang, Research Officer, National Research Council

Ryan Hennessey, PhD Candidate, University of Waterloo

Breakout Room One: Urban Blue-Green Infrastructure

Luna Khirfan, Associate Professor of Planning, University of Waterloo

Liam O'Brien, Professor of Architectural Conservation and Sustainability Engineering at Carleton University

Kumaraswamy Ponnambalam, Professor of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo & Kumary Chiquinquira Ponnambalam, Carbon Trad Economies & Regenerative Economies Researcher

Amir Salehi, Graduate Student, University of Waterloo

Breakout Room Two: Social Networks and Social Imitation/Contagion/Norm Adoption

Amrita Punnavajhala, PhD Candidate, University of Waterloo

Rui Wang, PhD Candidate, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Mackenzie Cameron, Graduate student, University of Waterloo

Athira Satheesh Kumar, Graduate student, University of Waterloo

Art Reception

Kumar Chiquinquira Ponnambalam, Carbon Trade Economies & Regenerative Economies Researcher

Adrienne Mason, Graduate Student, University of Waterloo

Ella Kari-Huhl, PhD Candidate, University of Waterloo

May 3, 2023 (Day Three):

Welcoming remarks with Blake Phillips, Director of the School of Accounting and Finance, University of Waterloo and Jenn Lines, Co-Director of the Sustainability and Financial Management Program, University of Waterloo

"Climate and Sustainable Finance" - Olaf Weber, Professor of Environment, Enterprise and Development at University of Waterloo

"Statistics for Complex Climate Problems" - David Saunders, Associate Professor of Statistics and Actuarial Science at University of Waterloo

Breakout Room One: Climate Economics and Governance (part 1)

Andrea Macrina, Professor of Mathematics, University College London

Mikael Homanen, Head of Product Innovation and Research, Principles for Responsible Investment

William White, Senior Fellow at C.D. Howe Institute

Breakout Room Two: Decarbonization, Carbon Currencies, and Climate Risk

Peter Tankov, Professor of Quantitative Finance at ENSAE Paris

Chrystopher Nehaniv, Professor of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo

Gael Giraud, Founder and Director of Environmental Justice Program at Georgetown University

Breakout Room One: Climate Economics and Governance (part 2)

Jiayue Zhang, Graduate student in Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo

Joan David C. Gehring, Scholar, Winchester College UK and Co-Chair of the Global Youth Council on Science, Law and Sustainability and Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Visiting Chair in Sustainable Development Law and Policy, University of Cambridge and Professor of Law, University of Victoria

Truzaar Dordi, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Victoria

Breakout Room Two: Carbon Sequestration

Cornelis Van Kooten, Professor of Economics, University of Victoria

Yuri Leonenko, Associate Professor of Geological Engineering at University of Waterloo

Gennaro Notomista, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo