Bringing together climate researchers and mathematicians
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 - 4th, 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.
Full Agenda with Linked Recordings
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) "Climate change impacts and mitigation in coastal ecosystems: from tipping points to blue carbon and reserve networks" - Frederic Guichard, Professor, Biology, McGill University (slides in PDF)
"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
"Combining Geophysical Models and Machine Learning" - Chris Fletcher, Associate Professor, Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo
"Uncertainty Estimates for Sea Ice Concentration: Results from a Bayesian Neural Network and Next Steps" - Andrea Scott, Associate Professor, Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo
"A Machine Learning-explainable AI Approach to Tropospheric Water Vapour Dynamics to uncover Changes in Climate Behaviour" - Julio Valdes, Research Officer, National Research Council
"Universal Early Warning Signals of Phase Transition in Climate System" - 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 Basu, 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
"Simulating the Spread of Bark Beetle Infestations in Canada using Agent-based Modeling Approaches" - Taylor Anderson, Assistant Professor, Geography and Geoinformation Science, George Mason University
"Advancing models for sustainability science: health effects of climate change" - Rebecca Saari, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo
"Optimal Irrigation Planning via Control of Richards' Equations" - Roberto Guglielmi, Assistant Professor, Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo
Breakout Room Two: Energy Networks; Supply Chains-Design and Resilience (recordings not available)
"Generative Models for Material Design in Climate Change: Overview and Applications" - Sajjad Ghaemi, Research Scientist, National Research Council
"Integrated Life Cycle Optimization in Chemical Process Design" - Jianjun Yang, Research Officer, National Research Council
"Co-benefits of Integrating Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the Canadian Energy Sector" - Ryan Hennessey, PhD Candidate, University of Waterloo
Breakout Room One: Urban Blue-Green Infrastructure
"Complex Coupled-Human Natural Systems Modelling" - Luna Khirfan, Associate Professor of Planning, University of Waterloo
"Climate and Human Exposure Considerations of Telework" - Liam O'Brien, Professor of Architectural Conservation and Sustainability Engineering at Carleton University
"Urban Climate Challenges Regenerative Economics to Guide Urban Environments" - Kumaraswamy Ponnambalam, Professor of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo & Kumary Chiquinquira Ponnambalam, Carbon Trad Economies & Regenerative Economies Researcher
"Geospatial Mapping of Buildings' Greenhouse Gas Emissions Distribution at City Scale using Publicly Available Data" - Amir Salehi, Graduate Student, University of Waterloo
Breakout Room Two: Social Networks and Social Imitation/Contagion/Norm Adoption (recordings not available)
(Slides only) "A Coupled Social-Climate Model with Country-Level Structure" - Amrita Punnavajhala, PhD Candidate, University of Waterloo (slides in PDF)
"Extreme Weather Events and Climate Perceptions" - Rui Wang, PhD Candidate, University of Massachusetts Amherst
"Spatial and Temporal Discounting in a Coupled Social-Climate" - Mackenzie Cameron, Graduate student, University of Waterloo
"Examining the Influence of Rumour Propagation in Heterogenous Social Networks on Temperature Change in a Coupled Socio-Climate Model" - Athira Satheesh Kumar, Graduate student, University of Waterloo
Art Reception
Kumar Chiquinquira Ponnambalam, Carbon Trade Economies & Regenerative Economies Researcher displays works including the painting titled "Cosmopolitan, Mixed Media". Our ancestors may be curious about the measures we plan to implement in addressing the challenges posed by urban environments, commonly known as concrete jungles, which are already impacted by heat island effects, floods, storm surges, and other related issues.
Adrienne Mason, Graduate Student, University of Waterloo exhibits stacks of Holling's Hydrology Loops from the small water cycle, at the local watershed scale, with larger hydrological systems such as the Great Lakes ecoregion. The artist stands on the sculpture Earth System State Water Balance and manipulates the other sculptures as puppetry. All of this is to symbolize that human action drives water system function at this stage in the Anthropocene and we can choose to maintain the dynamic equilibrium that supports this current Earth System State Water Balance or we can prepare to Tip into another state that is less favourable.
Ella Kari-Huhl, PhD Candidate, University of Waterloo displays art illustrating a relational view of systems complexity in sea otter return.
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)
"Academia and Industry Collaborate on Research in Mathematical Climate Finance" - Andrea Macrina, Professor of Mathematics, University College London
"Investor Sustainability Reporting" - Mikael Homanen, Head of Product Innovation and Research, Principles for Responsible Investment
"Sleepwalking Towards a Global Polycrisis?" - William White, Senior Fellow at C.D. Howe Institute
Breakout Room Two: Decarbonization, Carbon Currencies, and Climate Risk
"Decarbonization of Large Financial Markets" - Peter Tankov, Professor of Quantitative Finance at ENSAE Paris
"Design Spaces and Choices for Carbon Currencies: Values, Robustness and Effective Dynamics" - Chrystopher Nehaniv, Professor of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo
"Extreme Climate Risks and Financial Tipping Points" - Gael Giraud, Founder and Director of Environmental Justice Program at Georgetown University
Breakout Room One: Climate Economics and Governance (part 2)
"Some Aspects of Green Finance: Concepts and Methods" - Jiayue Zhang, Graduate student in Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo
"Models and Rules for our Global Climate? Advances in Climate Law and Mathematics" - 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
"Shifting Perceptions on Climate Action: An International Sentiment Analysis of News Media" - Truzaar Dordi, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Victoria
Breakout Room Two: Carbon Sequestration
"Climate Change and the Primary Sectors: The Role of Carbon in Agriculture and Forestry" - Cornelis Van Kooten, Professor of Economics, University of Victoria
"Geological Sequestration of CO2 (Research and Challenges)" - Yuri Leonenko, Associate Professor of Geological Engineering at University of Waterloo
"Learning Persistent Environmental Monitoring Using Multi-Robot Teams" - Gennaro Notomista, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo