Community-engaged flood mitigation and ecological restoration on a university campus

Abstract

Abstract Urban flooding is a major climate change risk that can be mitigated with green infrastructure such as tree plantings and restored naturalised buffers along watercourses. The creation and maintenance of green infrastructure projects for climate change adaptation provides opportunities for community partnerships and programming with co-benefits for human well-being and biodiversity. Here we present findings of action research on a flooding adaptation and education that was implemented on an urban higher education institution’s campus in partnerships within the university and with local Indigenous peoples, the regional conservation authority, the municipal government, and the public library. Through participatory workshops, we applied bioengineering and mixed planting methods to restore a creek bank. Using a combination of oral storytelling, digital media, and visual art that integrated perspectives across disciplines and knowledge systems, we situated our creek restoration project within a framework of environmental justice, emphasising specific acts of stewardship to improve watershed health and advance reconciliation. We produced digital resources and outreach materials to disseminate lessons from the project into the community and to support similar flooding adaptation efforts at local and global scales. Our project demonstrates how incorporating partnerships into the design and implementation of nature-based solutions can build cross-cultural ecological knowledge, forge important on and off-campus relationships, and create place-based opportunities for students to take direct and measurable action on climate change.