Nature Based Coastal Solutions and Ecological Restoration Symposium 2024
The 2024 Nature Based Coastal Solution and Ecologic al Restoration Symposium is dedicated to creating a space for reflection, collaboration, and development. Through open dialogue and discussion of successes earned, challenges faced, and lessons learned, we hope to support the continued implementation and advancements of nature-based and restoration projects in Canada and North America.
TransCoastal Adaptations: Centre for Nature-Based Solutions and Coastal Zone Canada’s Nature Based Coastal Solutions Community of Practice are hosting this multi-day event in conjunction with the Society for Ecological Restoration Eastern Canada. The Symposium will connect coastal practitioners, coastal engineers, natural and social scientists, professors, students, planners, politicians, and Indigenous groups.
Together, we are working towards the application, implementation, and delivery of nature-based adaptations to climate change, and sharing the latest research in coastal and estuarine science!
The Nature Based Coastal Solutions and Ecological Restoration Symposium will be held from June 24-26, 2024, at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Bookending the event are 2 optional field trips (June 23, June 27), to view nature-based coastal adaptation strategies in action in Nova Scotia.
Keynote Speakers
Dr. Line Rochefort
Line Rochefort is a professor at Université Laval and hold a Research Chair in Ecosystem Restoration. She is also the director of the Peatland Ecology Research Group (PERG / GRET in French). Her research focus is the study of bryophyte ecology in northern disturbed ecosystems, of which a great part of her career has focused on the biology of Sphagnum mosses, which led her to become a leader in peatland ecological restoration in Canada and one of the world's pioneers in this field.
The restoration of disturbed mineral bare ground (post ore mining, sand pits) using bryophytes and lichens (biocrusts) is a developing branch of study in her laboratory.
Dr. Donna Marie Bilkovic
Dr. Donna Marie Bilkovic employs socio-ecological theory, spatial modeling, and field ecology to investigate the intersection of coastal ecosystems and human communities. She is a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary, and serves as the Assistant Director of the Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM).
Dr. Bilkovic's research centers on the ecological and sociocultural benefits of nature-based shoreline protection, the resilience of coastal habitats, the impact of shoreline alterations on fish communities, and the sustainability of marshes and their ecosystem services. She is the Lead Editor and a contributing author of "Living Shorelines: The Science and Management of Nature-Based Coastal Protection" (2017, CRC Press), the first comprehensive book on nature-based shoreline protection. Additionally, she has authored over 30 papers on shoreline ecosystems and nature-based coastal protection.
Dr. Larissa Naylor
Larissa Naylor is Professor of Geomorphology and Environmental Geography at the University of Glasgow, UK. Larissa is a coastal geomorphologist who works at the interface of geomorphology, ecology and engineering and applies this to address ecological and climate change challenges facing society. Larissa helped establish the UK’s Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership; informed the IPCC’s 4th and 5th Assessments; and advised the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
She has shaped climate change, marine, flooding and planning policies and climate change adaptation action plans. Her work has won notable awards for career achievements, best papers, industry innovation and as exemplars of international best practice on coastal risk management and nature-based solutions projects, including co-leading a chapter in US Corps of Army Engineers International guidelines on Natural and Nature-based Solutions for managing coastal flooding and erosion.
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