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Reflections on the conversation with Hans Schreier

Ilyas Kanybek

One of the most striking and perhaps already reiterated ideas was that extreme whether events, droughts, flooding, climate change should not be considered in isolation as they are intrinsically interconnected. I think it is particularly true for droughts and flooding. We often end up in these kind of isolated ideas and I think it is partially due to categorizations that we impose on everything around us. Challenges we faced in combating COVID-19 was also due to seeing things in isolation.

Another incredibly relevant topic we discussed is the changing hydrological cycles and water quality. Discussing the water quality we often overlook the importance of relationship of all the water. Urbanizations and densification are furthering the pressure on the water resources. Cities and urban zones are to experience population growth and it is only with comprehensive approach such as green roofs, smaller roads, better public transportation and many other small initiatives are we to achieve sustainable development. I was very happy to hear Dr Schreier saying that pavements are bad, it is incredibly quite voice in North America, a very car friendly society. Urban science is not just super exciting but also has a huge potential to change cities. Urban trees for example are on elf the must have components of any city planning. Trees cool the temperature, provide shade and decrease the amount of CO2 in the air, has a huge impact on evapotranspiration, soil interception and most importantly are incredibly beautiful. It is surprising that in 21st century we still have not realized it.

Another very good argument I liked is the re-consideration of the role of agriculture. We cannot have it in flood risk zones and we should reconsider the industrial scale agriculture too. It is particularly true in the North American context.

Leandra Vanbaelinghem

I agree with Ilyas that our human tendency to categorize everything prevents us from understanding thoroughly the big picture, as reflected in multiple scenarios like the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, systems approach and interconnectivity thinking is a field of thinking that is relatively new. For example, life-cycle thinking was only used around the late 1960s. We should adopt such a systems approach to sustainability and resiliency because it is crucial to increase our understanding of sustainability issues and prevent problem-shifting. I appreciated Ilyas' point about how we must urgently implement sustainable solutions in response to the increasing population, which only places increasing demand on our world's water use and security capacity. In response to how we still have not realized the benefit of urban trees in the 21st century, I think our push towards interdisciplinary collaborations will increase our population-wide planetary understanding and drive change. Lastly, I agree that agricultural location needs to be reconsidered. Connecting it back to the increase in population worldwide and the forceable increase in food demand, this also stresses food security and the need to improve the sustainability of the agricultural sector, especially as it already contributes a large share of global environmental impacts.

Leandra Vanbaelinghem

I found Dr. Schreier's presentation very useful when thinking about Brandt's creek and our respective projects. My group's project focuses on the hydrology and water quality aspects of the creek, which were areas of knowledge that were extensively described in this presentation. It broadened my perspective of what we can look at and what would be essential for our project. At first, I thought of exploring what information is missing for Brandt's creek when compared to a known healthy and resilient creek. However, we can expand this information to incorporate what we learned to be important for hydrology from this talk, for example, flow and soil infiltration rate. We now know that filling hydrological, water quality, and habitat knowledge gaps can give us insights into Land use and climate change. Furthermore, when learning about what urban structures impact our environment and put us at greater risk of floods, it was great to be able to connect this information to Brandt's creek. For instance, I could not help but have a throbbing image of pavements all around Brandt's creek when learning about how negatively non-pervious surfaces contribute to flood risk. It was pretty saddening to hear the response to Gaby's question that, unfortunately, it is difficult to dismantle such pavement structures.

On a cheerier note, I really enjoyed that Dr. Schreier discussed the climatic issues caused by climate change and problematic urban structures but also focused heavily on solutions. These solutions involved different system boundaries, from a property level to a neighbourhood level to a watershed management level. These inspiring innovations were very motivating and made me feel very relieved. The subject of sustainability and climate change is weighty and anxiety-provoking, so knowing that such brilliant strategies have been thought of and are awaiting implementation is beautiful. Hearing about domestic water use restrictions in some locations reminded me of similar water scarcity prohibitions put in place this summer back home. France has had an abnormally long hot summer that caused droughts and early fruiting. In some locations, domestic water or municipal water reserve use was prohibited. Hence, most people were banned from filling pools, washing cars, and public water sources were cut, for example. It is rare to have rainwater storage on property in France, unlike the examples Dr. Schreier showed, which shows how much we can all do better and implement existing solutions urgently. Lastly, it was very interesting to see how climate change impacts like heavy rainfall, floods, droughts, wildfires, and disease are all connected. Dr. Schreier explained that these events are usually studied in isolation but are actually interrelated, suggesting that they should be inspected at a systems level. This reinforces the idea of a systems approach to sustainability, as we saw in Dr. Parrot's presentation. It was very neat to hear about a system's level concept and on climatic events rather than on more tangible subjects, like physical landscapes or product supply chain systems.

Gabrielle Heschuk

Leandra I completely agree and empathize with what you wrote and how you feel about Dr. Schreier's presentation. It was very saddening to hear about the lack of ability to change the modification of Brandt's creek but at the same time his presentation also provided a lot of hope and solutions to many climate change issues that are worsened in urban settings. Many of the topics that you reflected on were things that also resonated with me as someone who cares deeply about climate change but often feels hopeless at times. I also appreciated how you talked about France in your reflection and how this is a place that could benefit from some of the topics Dr. Schreier brought up like rainwater storage. It makes me think about how important small retrofits like this are in community settings. In my research about regenerative tourism one of the major ideas is that change needs to start with small, specific, tangible solutions that are implemented at the local level to create a bottom up approach to climate change. This really emphasizes that idea where we can't wait around for governments or corporations to solve problems that they have created, people can take initiative and invest in small changes to create a more sustainable community.

Sofia Bahmutsky

Dr. Hans Schreier from UBC Vancouver’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems gave a very interesting and lively presentation about innovative stormwater management. I was deeply engaged for the entirety of his lecture because I have always been invested in the topics he was addressing throughout my childhood and young adulthood. The connection between wildfires, floods, droughts, diseases, and windstorms was not a novel idea for me, but I greatly appreciated how Dr. Schreier succinctly and aptly conveyed the complexity and interconnectedness of the system. Having grown up in Alberta, the pine beetle outbreaks, and summer forest fires are an annual occurrence and I learned about it in depth during my undergraduate degree. A lot of research in my department was dedicated to mountain pine beetle research because of how damaging it is to the forests.

A comment I really appreciated from Dr. Schreier was about the connection between the average oceanic temperature and moisture in the atmosphere. For each degree increase in temperature, about 7% moisture is added to the atmosphere, this is how he explained the direct connection between temperature and more intense atmospheric rivers leading to floods in the Abbotsford area.

Although much of sustainability and environmental studies gives me a negative feeling and depressive mindset of doom, Dr. Schreier did a wonderful job portraying positivity through his work and lecture. He provided meaningful examples of positive implementation of water management which had visible and tangible benefits. It was really inspiring to see some positivity and remind me of why I chose to study sustainability and devote my career to this subject in the first place. Particularly of interest to me was the part of his lecture about urban forests. I am part of a society called the Kelowna Tree Protectors which is involved with maintaining, preserving, and expanding the urban forest of the city of Kelowna. The reason I was drawn to be part of this society was about the trees, but mostly about the community aspect. In some areas of Kelowna, there are very old and large (sometimes rare) trees which the community can elect to have a placard installed which details information about the tree, the history, sometimes even information about the people who take care of the tree/property. I have always been captivated by trees (to be honest, I would say trees are my favourite animal when asked as a young child) and searching for unique trees, mainly because in Alberta there are much fewer tree species that can withstand the higher elevation and colder climate compared to British Columbia. My first time in the Okanagan Valley, I was shocked to see trees that I didn’t know existed in Canada and noticed how much I loved seeing the variety.

Overall, I think Dr. Schreier’s presentation provided extremely useful and valuable information, but his positive attitude and motivation is what I admired most. He made me feel like all is not lost, that my actions can make a difference, although slow perhaps to make change at a larger scale, there is proof that collective actions and enacting bylaws that benefit the environmental is possible.

Ilyas Kanybek

I completely agree with Sofia that though the idea of interconnectedness of droughts, floods, wildfires, disasters and windstorms is not a noel concept is definitely an idea that we often overlook or underestimate its importance. I think it is critical for us to not just acknowledge these connections but embrace them and re-structure our system so it addresses this complex system of relations.

I also very much agree how much environmental sciences and sustainability studies can be saddening and sometimes even depressing endeavors. However, our discussion wit the Dr Schreier was indeed very positive, where we got to learn about these successful policies and positive changes. I think it is particularly critical for us to pay more attention to making our science more positive and less depressive. Hope is incremental part of any attempts.

Gabrielle Heschuk

I have to agree completely with both Sofia and Leandra about their enthusiasm towards Dr. Schreier's presentation. So far in terms of presentations that have resonated with me and this class I think that Dr. Schreier was able to deliver an interesting, engaging and useful presentation on his research area while also actively incorporating what we are working on at Brandt's creek. While Dr. Schreier went over some topics that I was already aware of he also introduced me to a whole new array of innovations that have been created for climate change mitigation. He was also able to explain everything to the class in such a manner that was accessible to everyone. Dr. Schreier's work provided tangible solutions to densification, water management, flood mitigation, and issues that arise with impervious surface's. Like Sofia mentioned it can sometimes become overwhelming knowing, hearing, and learning about climate change issues and especially as students in the sustainability program, it can be a very anxiety provoking learning environment. However, Dr. Schreier's presentation created a sense of hope, where he showed there are real possible and tangible solutions to so many different climate change issues.

Another reason as to why Dr. Schreier's was useful and informative and overall very enjoyable was his ability to relate his work to our project at Brandt's creek. Dr. Schreier spoke about how modification of natural channels like rivers, streams, and creeks affect an area in a negative manner. This can include increasing risk of floods which Kelowna is prone to. Dr. Schreier spoke about the possibilities of allowing for natural flow of different water channels in urban areas and the importance of this. The biggest challenge is how to get rid of all the modifications that have been placed upon many channels in urban areas. Dr. Schreier mentioned that after a major flood, there is an opportunity for the removal of these structures around the natural channels that divert their natural flow. This opportunity arises as often the damages from floods forces local areas to rebuild anyway. So, after a flood it is useful to look at removing some of these manmade structures and naturalized these channels. This provides great context for Brandt's creek and the potential and importance of naturalizing the channel. The difficulty here would be removing the structures that are forcing the direction and the flow of the water through the creek. This may be a good place to start or to consider when discussing our projects for brandt's creek.

Daisy Pullman

Hi Gabi!

I really enjoyed your reflection and share many of your takeaways from Professor Schreier's presentation. I also felt a bit overwhelmed by the negative outlook at first, but found the latter part of the presentation on mitigation strategies relatively hopeful. Your emphasis on Kelowna's flood risk is very pertinent, and something I think needs to be central to any Brandt's Creek intervention we propose. Waterways like the creek are essential to mitigating the impact of what seem to be inevitable flood events in coming years, and we neeed to consider this in developing our projects.

Annie Furman

Dr. Hans Schreier’s lecture on the impacts of climate change and land use change on hydrology and potential adaptations for flood mitigation was incredibly helpful in thinking about our approach to Brandt’s Creek. I especially appreciated how Dr. Schreier acknowledged throughout his talk that adaptations are insufficient when it comes to problems that ultimately require us to reduce and remove CO2 from the atmosphere, and yet are still a vital starting point. His positive outlook on the applications of innovative stormwater management/flood mitigation projects also gave me a significant amount of hope that there are in fact things we can try to change about land use around Brandt’s Creek that will have a positive impact on the watershed.

As soon as Dr. Schreier mentioned the runoff problems created by impermeable paved surfaces, I had a suspicion that permeable pavement/ecopavers would be mentioned as a possible adaptation, and I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before in relation to Brandt’s Creek. The nature centre that I worked at as an educator prior to starting my MFA had recently redone their entire parking lot with ecopavers as part of a sustainability initiative, so I got to see some of the impacts they could have firsthand and talk with people about the community response. Visitors tended to be a little confused (most had never seen ecopavers before), but generally intrigued once the purpose was explained, and many commented that the parking lot was also much cooler in the summer than comparative asphalt lots. In addition to the roads and parking lots, this makes me consider the bike path that runs alongside Brandt’s Creek in a new light. Are there possibilities for permeable paving there that could work to both enrich the bike path and essentially use the bike path as part of a buffer zone for Brandt’s Creek?

Another aspect of Dr. Schreier’s talk that was helpful in visualizing relationships between climate change/land use change/hydrology and water flow over time were his abundance of detailed, local graphs. As Dr. Schreier mentioned, one of the primary drivers in Brant’s Creek’s waterflow is snow accumulation and snowmelt, and that it may be helpful to seek out measurements of temperature and precipitation in the mountains and downtown. This immediately makes me think of some kind of citizen science project, and I wonder if this could be an opportunity to involve children at local schools in taking daily measurements as part of their science curriculum.

Hoda Pourpirali

Hi Annie. You highlight some significant points of Dr. Hans Schreier’s lecture that are completely related to our common project. (Brandt’s creek). I hope we could find enough information to extend our study in the field of land use, climate change, and flooding in Brandt’s creek. You mentioned your work experience environment that recently redone their entire parking lot with eco pavers as part of a sustainability initiative. It’s such promising news and shows that the importance of sustainability is increasing every day. I really like to know more about it.

Shaiyan Siddique

Professor Hans Schreier began the presentation on land use and flood management by talking about the adaptation-mitigation nexus, setting up a very effective background for the discussions. The adaptation-mitigation nexus has been a very important topic in the sphere of global environmental and climate politics across the last few decades, particularly for developing countries like Bangladesh. For major international binding and non-binding agreements such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto protocol or the Paris agreement, the onus of mitigation has traditionally rested on developed countries while vulnerable developing countries focused on adapting to the impacts. However, in recent years there has been a noticeable paradigm shift in this nexus as the developed countries start to experience the impacts of climate change and have to start worrying about adaptation. For example, in connection to my research, I got to know how climate change has caused a significant reduction in the production of major field crops across the Canadian prairies.

The threat of extreme weather events such as flooding, once mainly a headache for poor and developing countries, is also creeping up on the developed countries. Professor Schreier’s discussions on the negative impacts of impervious layering on the groundwater hydrological cycle was very relatable for me. I remember attending many urban planning and environmental seminars in Dhaka which discussed the negative impacts of this issue. For an unplanned and densely populated city such as Dhaka, the near ubiquitous layering of the city’s soil with concrete and asphalt resulted in double trouble. First, it has exacerbated water-logging in the city as it already struggles with an archaic and perpetually litter-clogged drainage system. Second, the impervious layering prevents the infiltration and recharging of the groundwater table, making it exceptionally difficult to support the city’s gargantuan population size with clean water. Such concerns regarding drainage and runoff planning are now also very relevant for places like the lower mainland of BC, especially after the 2021 flooding event. Furthermore, water rationing and rainwater harvesting has also traditionally been encouraged in many developing countries struggling with water scarcity. Rainwater harvesting in particular is a very popular practice in Bangladesh. As discussed by professor Schreier, a similar concept is now being floated in wealthier countries as well, with the hopes that people will embrace the idea of a “yellow lawn” to save water during the season of high demand.

Professor Schreier also discussed the influence of impervious layering of the soil on increasing the pollution burden of nearby waterbodies, giving an example of waste oils and chemicals from paved parking lots. This provided valuable insights for my group’s project on Brandt’s creek. One of the issues that we will be looking at for the project is the runoff of agricultural and industrial pollutants to the creek. Professor Schreier’s discussions will surely help us to better understand the underlying mechanics of the problem and come up with more effective solutions.

Annie Furman

I’ve noticed the paradigm shift you mention as well in recent years as developed countries (like portions of the Northeastern US where I grew up) are starting to feel impacts of climate change that developing countries have been experiencing for much longer. It’s very interesting to read about your experiences with urban planning in Dhaka, and I’d be very curious to hear more about your experiences dealing with impermeable pavement there and some of the challenges/successes you ran into there. In my reflection, I spoke a bit about permeable paving solutions that I’ve recently seen implemented in the US that have had some success, though at a small scale in a very rural area.

Daisy Pullman

The first half of Professor Hans Schreier’s presentation was both informative and alarming. Although I haven’t lived in the Okanagan long, I am aware of the significant climate threats the region faces: wildfire, extreme heat events, and flooding. I was not aware until this presentation, however, of the way these climate events interconnect and fuel each other, in what Professor Schreier described as cascading climate events. It is a stark reminder of the way climate change is creating feedback loops of escalating impacts, and the example of BC’s series of extreme climate events in 2021 (the heat dome, wildfires, and severe flooding) was a terrifyingly accurate realisation of this process.

Thankfully Professor Schreier ended the presentation on a hopeful note and presented a wide-range of potential strategies for flood prevention and mitigation. Many of these were implementable on a local scale which I appreciated as I think some of the most impactful changes can be made at the local level, and for our Brandt’s Creek project it is the most feasible scale to work at. From changes individuals can make to their property, such as permeable paving, green rooves, rainwater retention, and more tree cover, to policies that could be implemented at the municipal level such as roadside swales, restrictions on lawn watering in dry periods, and stormwater retention ponds, I appreciated the range of small-scale solutions Professor Schreier presented.

This presentation was very relevant for our class project due to its focus on flood prevention, although given the heavily urbanised character of the North End neighbourhood Brandt’s Creek runs through, I question how many of the recommendations are feasible. From Professor Schreier's recommendations, the ideal restoration would involve rewilding the river banks, and 'un-improving' (or dechannelising) the creek by allowing it to wiggle. This would require the use of a significant amount of land that is currently under concrete and includes a heavily used road (Weddell Place). There would also be a risk of such a restoration project displacing the significant homeless community that lives close to the creek. I wonder how we can reconcile the needs of the creek and flood mitigation with the needs of the human community that lives alongside the creek. One recommendation from Professor Schreier's presentation that may be more applicable to Brandt's Creek was the use of permeable paving and road surfaces. This could be a good compromise for the North End neighbourhood's specific needs.

Anjali Desai

Hi Daisy, I concur with you on the relevance of permeable paving and road surfaces around the Brandt's creek as a flood mitigation solution. While small changes like this seem negligible to start with but collectively, they can generate considerable impact due to its ease in implementation by a large number of people. United Nations Environment Programme, GRIDArendal and Behavioural Insights Team (2020) promotes the utilization of social connectivity networks and peer pressure to help catalyze movements and get people to make commitments to sustainability. Eg: Public pledges towards sustainable goals. We work under the premises that there is a general resistance toward anything new due to the inherent complexity of the topic and the deep-rooted reluctance to anything new. There is still a long way to go before our vision for small changes is widespread, but our intention is to make a dent in some critical ways.

Hoda Pourpirali

The subject of Dr. Schreier's lecture was super helpful in considering Brandt's creek and our individual projects. Flood, hydrology, and water quality are the main issues that our group wants to investigate which Dr, Schreier's well pointed out. I learned to look more acutely at the issues of this creek in the context of sustainability. Some of the significant points I learned from this presentation are below:

This presentation sheds light on the devastating impact of climate change on our planet, and how various climate-related events such as droughts, wildfires, and floods are interconnected and can amplify each other's effects. The growing frequency and severity of these climatic disasters underscore the urgent need for us to reduce our impact on the environment, as we are the ones who will ultimately suffer the most.

Despite our increased understanding of the situation, there are still many basic questions that need to be answered, particularly when it comes to microclimatic events in different parts of a region. Hydrologists face a major challenge in estimating the weather in these areas due to the lack of historical data and variability in climate patterns. In the case of Kelowna, the West Coast of Canada, there are significant differences in the local climate, which requires more time and resources to fully understand.

In the author's home country, droughts and floods have become a yearly occurrence, affecting the same region. The ancestors of the local people had developed methods of storing floodwater in underground chambers for use during the summer when there is little to no precipitation. However, in recent decades, the construction of upstream dams has resulted in a concentrated run-off in deep chambers dug into coarse materials, allowing water to penetrate into the underground water reservoir. These adaptations illustrate how communities can adapt to the challenges posed by climate change.

As the author studies Brandt's Creek, they must consider the impact of a potential flood on the nearby homes and factories. To assess the risk, it is necessary to analyze the hydrological and geological data of the creek, as well as assess possible flood scenarios. This highlights the importance of considering not only the scientific data but also the practical implications of climate change on communities.

Sofia Bahmutsky

I agree with you Hoda regarding the necessity for risk assessment not only using hydrological and geological data, but also the consideration of communities. Since your group is considering the hydrology of Brandt's Creek, I can see many useful and beneficial elements from Dr. Schreier's presentation that you and your peers may drawn upon for the project. Perhaps I misunderstood your point about lack of historical data. Although there is plenty of meteorological and geologic data, I think the reason that progress is difficult to make is often due to external factors such as economics, politics, etc. and not because of a data limitation.

The utilization of rain barrels to store rainwater is a great idea and I think it should be promoted more for homeowners in dry climates such as the Okanagan to reduce the dependency on household water. I have long been against the traditional "lawn" which is so common in North America, but I suppose that is a conversation for another time...

Thomas Letcher-Nicholls

I totally share Gabby, Leandra and Sofia’s real appreciation of Professor Hans Schreier’s presentation; and I was really grateful for the rigour and enthusiasm he brought to the class! I think I feel a lot of the same worries that they do about climate change; and so Professor Schreier’s energy and hopefulness helped me.

I am often frightened by the increasingly extreme climate events we are experiencing. Professor Schreier spoke about the extreme flooding and fires that have affected British Columbia in the last few years. In Australia we have had much the same. In 2019, we had catastrophic fires across my state in Victoria; and this year there has been terrible flooding across the country. These unprecedented events are becoming seriously precedented, and it is devastating. Like Annie writes, Professor Schreier showed that it is essential that carbon emissions are reversed above all.

Professor Schreier offered practical, effective solutions to flooding and water management; and as Gabby and Sofia say, this made me hopeful that we can make differences as individuals (which I often worry about). Indeed Professor Schreier said that if these small efforts are multiplied then the results can be significant and positive. The lingering worry I had was that these measures will not be enough in the case of really catastrophic climactic events – but this comes back to the need to limit emissions.

This was also a very helpful presentation specifically in relation to our Brandt’s Creek project; and I could see how many of the measures that Professor Schreier discussed would make a huge difference to the sustainability and resilience of the creek! But the problem is as Gabby notes – that the creek has already been so changed, channelled and built up. Like the first talk we had with Dr. Qian Chen, the challenge is the difficulty in trying to implement or retro-fit these positive changes once something has already been constructed. It will also be important to consider the community that already lives by the river, and how they would be affected by any changes.

To conclude, I found Professor Schreier’s presentation really energising and impactful. I would love to see the measures he spoke about adopted as much as possible in urban settings. The presentation also had a lot of implications for our project, and it will be really interesting to think about how we could adopt some of his work such as permeable surfaces, deeper soil, and more green space.

Kevin Auster

You did a great job connecting with Han’s presentation on your own experiences with climate events in Australia and with our class project. You describe how what we learned has had significance in your life and how we can use these ideas in our class project. I appreciate your reflection because it helps consolidate what I have learned from this presentation regarding how these concepts can be applied in different places and circumstances.

Em Isaak

I really enjoyed Dr. Schreier’s presentation because of how he connected the varying components of climate change. Dr. Schreier explained this through how wildfires are directly connected to mass flooding which are also connected to pine beetle infestations. Logically, I feel like I knew all this before but the way Dr. Schreier explained it made it seem much more real. I was able to have a clearer picture of what he was discussing.

One aspect that Dr. Schreier brought up quite a bit was the need to policy changes. The need to change policy seems to be a popular action required in many fields. Dr. Schreier shared that the British Columbia government spent around $5 million on consulting reports regarding climate change and such but did nothing with the results of those consultations. In my mind, this relates to policy changes because I think there is often a lack of governmental policy that requires a certain amount of action to be done after consultation for a project or what have you.

I have come to realize that I absolutely hate parking lots and everything about them. I very much appreciated Dr. Schreier’s input on how parking lots could be a lot more environmentally friendly and sustainable. He also mentioned how rain water could be used in so many instances. Rain water makes complete sense, I do not understand how we do not already use rainwater in our gardens and our toilets. There are definitely certain spaces that do not need treated/running water.

All these thoughts and ideas shared by Dr. Schreier are applicable to our project because of where Brandt’s Creek is. Brandt’s Creek originally being more of a wetland, marsh environment has now been funneled into being a creek surrounded by a lot of concrete and so, with Dr. Schreier’s ideas in mind, we can use them as guidance for our project.

Shaiyan Siddique

Hi Em! It was really nice to read your reflection and the ideas you picked up. Your idea about how professor Schreier's discussions can help us with our Brandt's creek project is similar to the opinion that I shared in my reflection. Also about your opinion on rain water, I just want to add that not only is it safe for use in gardens and toilets, it has also been widely encouraged in developing countries like Bangladesh to use for drinking. Rainwater is essentially distilled water. However, if rainwater is to be used for drinking purposes, it is advised that this water is to be collected 10-15 minutes after the start of raining. The reason for this is that the pollutants and particulate matter accumulated in the clouds are the first to fall as rain, since they are heavier. Also, at the beginning of the rain, the water gets mixed with the pollutants suspended in the atmosphere and settles down after some time. So rainwater collected after it has been raining for some time should be safe for drinking. In my childhood, I have seen this being announced heavily across Bangladesh.

Kevin Auster

Han Schreier discussed emerging environmental issues resulting from land use and climate change. I found the detailed breakdown of innovative-sustainable solutions, such as green infrastructure, for addressing changing land uses and climate to be the most interesting. I learned about some of these sustainable ideas in my previous education in urban planning, but I only have a limited understanding of them. Han’s presentation helped me learn in greater detail about how we can address land use and climate change, such as the different scales of applying innovative solutions to the landscape. I am glad I have had the opportunity to learn more about environmental sustainability because it helps me consolidate my understanding of it and reignites my curiosity on the subject.

Em Isaak

Hey Kevin! Thanks for your reflection! I have limited knowledge of environmental sustainability but I too feel very curious about it and I am excited for the rest of the semester to see what comes of our class. I found Dr. Schreier's presentation also helped put into perspective land use and climate change.

Anjali Desai

Located in the Okanagan valley, Kelowna is a rapidly developing city, which has experienced its share of calamities driven by climate change, e.g., the wildfires and drought in 2017 and 2018 due to the record high precipitation followed extreme heat (City of Kelowna, 2020). The Climate Projections for the Okanagan region 2020 report by the City of Kelowna calls for leaders across the local community to work together and adapt to the changes in the local climate to build a more resilient community. In this context, Dr. Hans presentation very aptly brought in the connection between wildfires, floods, droughts, diseases, and windstorms – a pressing issue even in the local context.

He raised important concerns of how land use impacts the local environment. Heavy industrialization, channelization of the natural meandering creeks, impermeable pavements have proven to bring disastrous effects in cities around the world. In context of Brandt’s creek, his ideas on innovative storm water management were also very insightful as we work on our projects.

These small changes may seem insignificant at first glance but taken together their impact is just revolutionary enough in this community to have far-reaching implications. It is important for an organization to embody the values it stands for. Our goal should be to bring change by becoming a true extension of our community. This is, of course, easier said than done. This isn’t a matter of disruption for the sake of disruption. It’s about driving authentic, lasting change in the community we are a part of.