Using Climate Information in the Transportation Sector, Part 1: Introduction to Climate Information for Decision Making

Canada’s climate is changing. These changes can have significant effects on critical transportation infrastructure and systems. We need climate data and information to understand and plan for these changes, and to reduce risks, adapt and build climate resiliency.

This webinar will provide an overview of key climate information concepts. Topics will include climate change impacts and risk assessments, historical data sets, future climate projections and emissions scenarios, and the importance of considering climate change in decision making.

Presenters

Elaine Barrow, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Elaine Barrow has over thirty years of experience in climate change research. She started her career in the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, UK, and moved to Canada in 1999. Since then, she has worked mainly as a consultant undertaking research on climate change scenario construction, performance assessment of both regional and global climate models over the prairies, prairie drought and uncertainty in climate signal emergence. Since joining the Canadian Centre for Climate Services as a Senior Advisor in February 2019 she has been involved in the development of ClimateData.ca and in the development and delivery of training materials to help decision-makers understand how to use climate information.

Sophie Donoghue, Transport Canada

Sophie Donoghue is a Research/Analysis Officer on Transport Canada’s Climate Change Adaptation Policy Team. Through their work, the Adaptation Policy Team advances knowledge and evidence-based policy through research, investments in northern transportation adaptation and climate risk assessment initiatives, and engagement with stakeholders, to enhance the resilience of the department and broader transportation system to the impacts of a changing climate.

Maginda Magendrathajan, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Maginda Magendrathajan is an analyst with the Canadian Centre for Climate Services. Her work aims to build capacity in climate data and information use through training and engagement. Prior to joining Environment and Climate Change Canada, she worked with the National Agroclimate Information Service to monitor extreme weather and climate impacts to Canadian agriculture. Maginda holds a Master’s degree in Climate Change from the University of Waterloo.

Ryan Smith, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Ryan Smith is a Policy Analyst with the Canadian Centre for Climate Services, a branch of Environment and Climate Change Canada. He obtained an MSc from the University of Manitoba in 2013, where he studied meteorology and climatology. He has taught courses in atmospheric sciences, human-environmental interactions and climate change, and has spent much of the past decade developing software that translates global climate model output into maps of local climate change impacts.

Laura Zimmermann, Transport Canada

Laura Zimmermann is a Research/Analysis Officer on Transport Canada’s Climate Change Adaptation Policy Team. Through their work, the Adaptation Policy Team advances knowledge and evidence-based policy through research, investments in northern transportation adaptation and climate risk assessment initiatives, and engagement with stakeholders, to enhance the resilience of the department and broader transportation system to the impacts of a changing climate.