Future graduate student research opportunities: Faculty of Environment

Seeking an interdisciplinary PhD student to examine how foresight and futures thinking can support municipalities in navigating long-term, equity-oriented urban climate transitions. The student will be embedded within a collaborative research initiative based at the University of Waterloo and will work closely with five municipalities across Canada to explore how participatory and strategic foresight approaches can be used to reimagine urban futures, guide decision-making under deep uncertainty, and reduce the risk of maladaptation. This research will combine empirical investigation with conceptual development, contributing both to scholarly debates on urban climate governance and to practical tools and insights for municipal practitioners.
 

Blackward to the Future is a community-led, participatory action research initiative dedicated to reclaiming the past, present, and future of the African American community in Phoenix, Arizona. The project seeks to address the erasure of Black histories from the city’s cultural landscape by documenting oral histories, preserving community archives, facilitating intergenerational dialogue, and co-creating future urban visions. Drawing on the Adinkra concept of sankofa—the principle of looking to the past to move forward—the project emphasizes joy, resistance, and self-determination over damage-centered narratives.

Natural assets are the stocks of natural resources and ecosystems that produce ecosystem services. Nature-based solutions, then, are actions we take to optimize ecosystem services use to help resolve societal challenges such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, floodwater control, environmental pollution, biodiversity loss, and threats to people's physical and mental health.

The objective of this project is to develop robust scenarios for the deployment of a marine-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approach that accounts for the interaction between physical (climate and ocean), technical, and social factors. Current climate projections indicate that atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations will exceed levels consistent with the Paris Climate Agreement target of limiting temperature increase to 1.5 to 2 ℃ making carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere a crucial element of national climate responses. The key question facing decision-makers is not whether to undertake CDR but which methods of CDR should be pursued. 

The main goal of this climate mitigation project is to support Canadian municipalities to monitor, measure and achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation goals. The aim is to ensure emissions reduction projects, policies and programs are aligned with Canada's national reduction commitments. The project is creating improved measurement, analysis and monitoring systems for both municipal and community-wide GHG emissions to advance the quantification of GHG emissions and enable the application of methods to identify mitigation opportunities and evaluate their effectiveness. This research augments national reporting processes and aligns with international practice.

Seeking a highly motivated doctoral student to join an interdisciplinary research project examining the role of nature-based solutions (NbS) in addressing climate-driven vulnerabilities in informal urban settlements in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), with a primary case study in Mérida, Mexico.

Informality is the dominant mode of urbanization in the Global South, where most future urban growth is projected to occur. Rapidly expanding but underserved informal settlements are disproportionately exposed to climate risks, including extreme heat, flooding, and water insecurity. Many cities in the LAC region face the triple challenge of the aftermath of rapid urbanization, climate change, and inequalities in access to services, infrastructure, and political representation.

The Waterloo Civic Map Lab is a research team focused on how geospatial technologies and data are used to meet the needs of community, government, and civic organizations. Student researchers at all levels (undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral) work to create applied and theoretical research that matters - understanding the challenges, benefits, and issues created by civic technologies and geospatial data.

Often referred to as ‘canaries in the climate change coal mine’ due to their sensitivity to climate change risks, small islands are facing increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events, changing precipitation patterns, and threats from future sea-level rise. These events, such as tropical cyclones, often cause significant infrastructure damage, disrupting critical food, water, and energy supplies.