Events

Topic: Making a home in Waterloo: international student families and housing insecurity

Speaker: Dr. Nancy Worth, with Dr. Alkim Karaagac

Location: EV3 1408

Our two-year case study in Waterloo, Ontario—a city known for its purpose-built student housing—reveals that international student families face distinct challenges in the local housing market. While all students contend with high housing costs, families struggle to find suitable accommodations in a market dominated by single-student units. International student families must also navigate unfamiliar rental processes with limited institutional support, as higher education institutions typically consider off-campus housing beyond their remit. Although international students are often blamed for housing affordability issues, our findings indicate they are among the housing crisis’ most vulnerable groups.

Topic: Exploring Amplification Pathways of Nature-Based Climate Solutions in Canadian cities

Speaker: Kayne Boyall (MSc student supervised by Dr. Sarah Burch)

Location: EV3 1408

Cities are increasingly central sites of climate action, amid compounding biodiversity and economic crises. Yet efforts to transform urban systems remain constrained by path dependency, indeterminacy, and shifting priorities. Nature-based climate solutions (NBCS) have gained prominence for their capacity to “multi-solve” by mitigating emissions, addressing climate risks, enhancing biodiversity, and delivering social–ecological co-benefits. Despite this promise, urban NBCS in Canada often remain confined to small-scale pilots and disconnected demonstration projects, limiting their transformative potential.

This research examines how NBCS can move beyond pilots to be amplified within broader systems of urban governance and transformation. Drawing on 20 semi-structured interviews with NBCS practitioners and governance experts alongside planning and policy documents in comparative case study of Vancouver, BC and Halifax, NS, this study maps distinct but interrelated pathways of amplification along with the actors, enabling conditions, and catalysts shaping the growth of NBCS initiatives. Particular attention is given to how institutional and organizational contexts influence the stability, diversity, and prioritization of co-benefits. The findings inform efforts to design, govern, grow and sustain NBCS in support of just, low-carbon and resilient urban futures.