Call for Abstracts

THE CALL FOR ABSTRACTS IS NOW CLOSED.

ON THIS PAGE

• About the Call for Abstracts
• Conference Themes
• Guidelines for Sessions
• Session Types
  
  • Workshop Session
  • Oral Presentation Session
  • Poster Sessions
• Guidelines for Oral Presentations
• Evaluation Criteria
• Timeline and Process for Submissions

About the Call for Abstracts

You are invited to submit an abstract to the Adaptation Canada 2020 conference, taking place February 19-21, 2020.

The conference is bringing to Vancouver experts and leaders from diverse sectors, regions and jurisdictions to work on one of the most urgent issues of our time — how to build climate change resilience in our communities, ecosystems and economies.

The Program in 2020 will focus innovations in resilience that have been developed over the past three years since the 2016 Adaptation Canada Conference. The Program Committee is interested in innovations that have significantly raised the game on resilience, involved unprecedented collaboration and resulted in quantifiable action on the ground, and are beginning to attract the necessary capital to begin implementation.

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Conference Themes

Session ideas and abstracts will be considered by the Program Committee within, but not limited to, the conference themes and sub-topics listed below.

Conference organizers want to ensure that Indigenous perspectives on climate change adaptation are shared in sessions under each Conference theme, wherever possible. We welcome submissions that focus on climate change adaptation in Indigenous communities and submissions that otherwise include Indigenous perspectives. [Added: May 10, 2019]

FINANCING RESILIENCE

• Building buy-in on the need for adaptation
• Key elements of a strong business case for resilience investments and cost-sharing models
• New trends in the insurance business and private sector financing
• Quantifying the value of natural assets/services.

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND CAPACITY BUILDING

• Adaptation capacity-building, including peer-mentoring between professions
• Vulnerability assessment processes such as PIEVC
• Improving understanding of the role and forms of natural infrastructure
• Increasing the “adaptation accreditation” of professionals
• Incorporating climate adaptation into professional practice guidelines
• Accessing and making use of climate information in professional practice

SHOWCASING SOLUTIONS

• Case studies of completed projects that include consideration of future climate in
  their design
• Collaboration between different organizations leading to action on adaptation
• Actions that reduce climate risks in existing or new infrastructure
• Integration of adaptation and mitigation to achieve “low carbon resilience”

ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE

• Climate change impacts on ecosystem health
• Ecosystem / protected areas planning strategies, tools and approaches
• Invasive species management and biodiversity protection
• Integrating green infrastructure and natural ecosystem services into adaptation proposals

RAISING AWARENESS & BROADENING ENGAGEMENT 

• Meaningful engagement of municipalities and Indigenous governments on adaptation
• Raising public awareness and engagement on adaptation
• Communicating effectively across professions and interests
• Deepening private sector awareness and action on adaptation

ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE INEQUITIES

• Advancing adaptation and supporting resilience within rural remote communities
• Identifying and addressing the needs of populations that are more vulnerable to climate impacts
• Climate justice and addressing the roots causes of climate change vulnerability as a method of adaptation
• Increasing engagement of health sector in adaptation (e.g., mapping vulnerabilities, risk assessments).

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Guidelines for Sessions

Recognizing the need to include content from across Canada, the program committee is looking for a diversity of presentations from different jurisdictions across the country. Session themes, including panel and oral presentations, will be considered for, but not limited to, the topics indicated above under Conference Themes. Session ideas must include an outline of the content and relevance to climate change adaptation and abstracts for each individual presentation. We encourage sessions and presenters to provide opportunities to engage the audience through online polling, facilitated small group discussions and other innovative engagement methods.

If complete abstracts are not available at the time of submission, please indicate to the best of your ability what types of presentations would be included in the proposed session.

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Session Types

Workshop Session

A workshop session is a period of interaction among speakers and attendees. Defined by a common theme or topic, the event attracts brief presentations by speakers followed by a facilitated discussion that includes the audience.

1. Typically 2-4 speakers/resource people
2. 90-minute session
3. We are open to various suggestions on format, as well as use of innovative methods to engage panel and audience members (such as online polling, small group sessions or facilitated dialogue)
4. Outline of panel discussion and its relevance to climate change adaptation is required
5. List of speakers/resource people, affiliations and areas of expertise are required (if available)
6. Methods that will be used to engage panel and audience members (such as online polling, small group sessions and facilitated dialogue)
7. The Fraser Basin Council reserves the right to make changes to submissions, including substituting speakers and facilitators or making changes to the timing of the session.

Note: Note: please do not ask your speakers/resource people to submit abstracts on their own; please include all abstracts in your proposal. A separate submission would be treated as an “unsessioned” oral presentation and may be placed into an oral session that has space.

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Oral Presentation Session

An oral presentation session is composed of a grouping of individual presentations followed by a discussion period.

1. 20 minutes per presentation (time includes 15 minutes for the presentation and 5 minutes for discussion)
2. 3 presentations per session
3. 30 minutes for additional questions at the end
4. Abstracts for each presenter or, if not available at the time of submission, a description of each presentation is required (Note: please do not ask your presenters to submit abstracts on their own; please include all abstracts in your proposal)
5. Methods that will be used to engage audience members (such as online polling)
6. Submitted sessions must use all 90 minutes of allotted time. For sessions that do not use the full 90 minutes, additional presentations may be added after the submission deadline to complete the timeslot.
7. The Fraser Basin Council reserves the right to make changes to submissions, including substituting speakers or making changes to the timing of the session.

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Poster Session

1. Typically 1 resource person per poster
2. 30-120 minute session
3. We are open to various suggestions on format, as well as use of innovative methods to engage conference attendees
4. Outline of poster and relevance to climate change adaptation required
5. Poster presenter’s affiliation and area of expertise required

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Guidelines for Oral Presentations

Presenters are asked to use MS PowerPoint, although presentations without PowerPoint are also acceptable. A projector and computer will be available in each meeting room.  Presenters will be required to provide their presentations to the conference organizers 10 days before the conference.  It is also requested that speakers bring their presentations on a USB stick to the conference as a backup.

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Evaluation Criteria

The program committee will evaluate submissions based on:

• Innovation of the proposed presentation or session
• Content and relevance to climate change adaptation
• Clarity of content and objectives
• Opportunities to engage other speakers and conference attendees.

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Timeline and Process for Submissions

1. For Abstract Submission: The deadline for submissions was set for May 21, 2019. To accommodate a number of requests we received from those finalizing abstracts for Adaptation Canada 2020, the Fraser Basin Council is extending the abstract submission deadline to May 27, 2019 at 5:00 pm (PDT).  If you have not already submitted an abstract, but wish to do so, please contact Jim Vanderwal (jvanderwal@fraserbasin.bc.ca).
   
   
2. Abstract Review and Notification: Submissions received will be evaluated by the Program Committee and you will be notified by email the week of July 29, 2019.
   
   
3. Register for the Symposium: If your abstract is accepted, you must register for the conference no later than September 30, 2019 for the Program Committee to secure your time-slot in the conference program.

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