Graham E. H. Strickert

University of Saskatchewan | U of S · Global Institute for Water Security

The notion of convergent and transdisciplinary integration, which is about braiding together different knowledge systems, is becoming the mantra of numerous initiatives aimed at tackling pressing water challenges. Yet, the transition from rhetoric to actual implementation is impeded by incongruence in semantics, methodologies, and discourse among d...

The Saskatchewan River Delta is the largest inland freshwater delta in North America. The delta has been inhabited by humans for at least 7,000 years, but this complex social-ecological system has been disrupted by reduced water and sediment flows due to upstream water resource development. To follow up on previous on-land participant observations...

Purpose Many large inland rivers are contaminated by historic industrial and agricultural activities along their shorelines. Redistribution of contaminated river sediments via dredging or flooding can reintroduce previously stored toxic persistent organic pollutants into the aquatic environment. Materials and methods We used multiple lines of evid...

This book gives positive examples how humans and rivers have been, and are still in some places, living in harmony. It analyses how this knowledge can be transferred into modern river management schemes and thereby it attempts to mitigate the deplorable trend of the decline of biological and cultural heritages and diversities in and along rivers. A...

To support Indigenous communities in preparing for uncertainties such as climate change impacts and unexpected threats to health, there are calls by researchers and community members for decision support tools that meaningfully and sensitively bring together Indigenous contextualized factors such as social dynamics, local- and culture-specific know...

Transdisciplinary researchers collaborate with diverse partners outside of academia to tackle sustainability problems. The patterns and practices of social interaction and the contextual nature of transdisciplinary research result in different performance expectations than traditional, curiosity-driven research. Documenting patterns of interaction...

There is growing interest to develop processes for creating user-informed watershed scale models of hydrology and water quality and to assist in decision-making for balanced policies for managing watersheds. Watershed models can be enhanced with the incorporation of social dimensions of watershed management as brought forward by participants such a...

Currently, there are no tools that measure improvements in levels of empathy among diverse water stakeholders participating in transboundary decision-making. In this study, we used an existing empathy scale from clinical psychology during an Experimental Decision Laboratory (EDL) where participants allocated water across a transboundary basin durin...

A challenge for transdisciplinary sustainability science is learning how to bridge diverse worldviews among collaborators in respectful ways. A temptation in transdisciplinary work is to focus on improving scientific practices rather than engage research partners in spaces that mutually respect how we learn from each other and set the stage for cha...

Water quality is increasingly at risk due to nutrient pollution entering river systems from cities, industrial zones and agricultural areas. Agricultural activities are typically the largest non-point source of water pollution. The dynamics of agricultural impacts on water quality are complex and stem from the decisions and activities of multiple s...

Water quality has been under unprecedented pressure over the past few decades due, in part, to increasing nutrient pollution from cities, industrial zones and agricultural areas entering river systems. The dynamics of these impacts on water quality are complex and stem from decisions and activities of different groups of stakeholders, who can have...

There is movement in engineering fields and in Indigenous communities for enhancement of local participation in the design of community infrastructure. Inclusion of community priorities and unique cultural, spiritual, and traditional values harmonize the appearance, location, and functionality of developments with the social and cultural context in...

Cities are under pressure to operate their services effectively and project costs of operations across various timeframes. In high-latitude and high-altitude urban centers, snow management is one of the larger unknowns and has both operational and budgetary limitations. Snowfall and snow depth observations within urban environments are important to...

Communicating research information to stakeholders can be challenging, but it increases research uptake and impact beyond the academic audience. Using art-based methods to convey research results has been shown to be very effective in reaching diverse audiences. The project reported herein used Forum Theater to convey study results on different per...

The following document provides guidance on how to coordinate the invitational drought tournament (IDT) in a university classroom. The IDT is appropriate for university students in 3rd or 4th year university or for those at the graduate level. The teacher guide is broken into the following sections: introduction, aim, rational, audience, prerequisi...

The following report highlights the opportunities for application of Invitational Extremes Tournaments in Academic and Non-Academic Settings. Furthermore, it outlines the key components of the Invitational Extreme Tournament (IET) while outlining important considerations for development, design, and application of pre-tournament workbooks, scenario...

The Invitational Drought Tournament (IDT) hosted by the Science and Technology Branch of AAFC is a developmental framework designed to help institutions build their capacity around drought preparedness. The purpose of the IDT is to use a game format to help participants identify gaps and vulnerabilities in their policy and practice. The Okanagan In...

The Invitational Drought Tournament 2012 was used to examine the institutional dynamics of culture that emerged during the sequence of the science-based multi-year drought scenario. Participants scored each team’s adaptation strategies on their ability to reduce the impact on the economy, society, and environment. Each round of scoring used a three...

The report begins by providing an introduction to the (Invitational Extremes Tournament) and listing the four major components. Subsequently, six themes relevant to the development of the IET are outlined. The first of these themes is the history of open source with reference to software; this is the most significant and dominant area of open sourc...

Abstract Water is essential for human development and the environment; however, its security is challenged by factors such as competing uses, over extraction, and divergent perspectives. The focus of this paper is to better understand how different stakeholders define water security in the South Saskatchewan River Basin, a large (121,095 km2) tran...

Place attachment is spatially and temporally anchored in the local context, affecting how residents perceive proposed development strategies. As such, we examine, through the analysis of 18 interviews conducted with residents from Rossport, Ontario, Canada, how place attachment and historical antecedents (or lack thereof) have influenced the accept...

Proactive drought preparedness is a challenge for a variety of physical, institutional, and social reasons. Significant progress has been made in monitoring and forecasting water deficits, both temporally and spatially. However, less progress has been made in translating this information into proactive decision-making frameworks to support drought...

Environmental policy discussion is replete with references to water security, food security, ecosystem health, community resilience, sustainable development, and sustainable urbanism. These terms are, by their very nature, ambiguous and difficult to define; they allow room, however, for a variety of actors to conceptualize water, food, ecological,...

We present a conceptual framework and methodology for policy development research in complex, uncertain, and data-poor environments with the objective of sustainable hazard mitigation. Creating effective policies for improving resilience to natural catastrophes in general and developing policy initiatives to help manage earthquakes in particular re...

Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) as a tool offers opportunities for modeling the inherent complexity and uncertainty associated with socio-environmental systems. This study draws on New Zealand ski fields (multiple locations) as socio- environmental systems while considering their perceived resilience to low probability but potential high consequen...

The author argues that a maximum of 20 to 30 percent of the functions present in current PPS systems are actually used, while essential tasks are not covered at all. In the following, a historic survey of production planning and control is used to determine the requirements which have to be met by a sound PPS solution.