Peace Sector Research Articles

Ice-Jam Flooding of the Peace–Athabasca Delta, Canada: Insights from Recent Notable Spring Breakup Events and Implications for Strategic Flow Releases from Upstream Dams

Ice jamming is the primary mechanism that can generate overland flooding and recharge the isolated basins of the Peace–Athabasca Delta (PAD), a valuable ecosystem of international importance and the ancient homeland of the Indigenous Peoples of the region. Focusing on the regulated Peace River and the Peace Sector of the delta, which has been experiencing a drying trend in between rare ice-jam floods over the last ~50 years, this study describes recent notable breakup events, associated observational data, and numerical applications to determine river discharge during the breakup events. Synthesis and interpretation of this material provide a new physical understanding that can inform the ongoing development of a protocol for strategic flow releases toward enhancing basin recharge in years when major ice jams are likely to form near the PAD. Additionally, several recommendations are made for future monitoring activities and improvements in proposed antecedent criteria for early identification of “promising” breakup events.

Towards common ground: Strategies for effective collaboration between the humanitarian and peacebuilding communities

Abstract In an era marked by growing conflicts, prolonged humanitarian needs and less donor funding, collaboration between the humanitarian and peacebuilding sectors is essential for more effective responses. This paper examines the complexities of fostering such collaboration, emphasizing the importance of integrated multisectoral approaches capable of addressing both immediate necessities and long-term peace and development objectives. While recent initiatives such as the humanitarian–development–peace nexus framework and the United Nations Secretary-General's Agenda for Humanity reflect progress toward integrated approaches, substantial collaborative challenges persist. This paper identifies three key entry points for mutual learning between humanitarian and peace actors. Firstly, it discusses a “peace-responsive” approach to humanitarian activities that proactively contributes to “peace-positive” outcomes. Secondly, it emphasizes the need for the peace sector to learn from humanitarian efforts regarding accountability to affected communities. Thirdly, it underscores the need to understand the normative foundations of each sector and their implications for joint action. Drawing on these insights, the paper offers recommendations for policy-makers and practitioners to help them advance joint approaches to humanitarian assistance and peacebuilding in conflict-affected contexts.

The Antecedents of Shared Leadership in Sport for Development and Peace Collaboratives

While recent scholarship emphasizes the potential role of shared leadership as a viable alternative to help address existing challenges in the Sport for Development and Peace sector, limited attention has been given to understanding how and when shared leadership can be developed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore antecedents of shared leadership based on practitioners’ lived experiences within multiorganizational collaboratives. A total of 30 practitioners involved in two multiorganizational Sport for Development and Peace collaboratives was interviewed. Data were analyzed through a two-cycle coding process. Four themes were identified, including (a) strategic planning, (b) support from vertical leaders, (c) shared events, and (d) personal characteristics of members as critical antecedents of shared leadership. The findings of this study provide a foundation for refining shared leadership theory. Additionally, the findings also allow for the identification of field-sensitive strategies practitioners can implement to develop environments more conducive to shared leadership development.

Effects of regulation on open‐water flows in the lower Peace River, Canada, and implications for the recharge of Peace‐Athabasca Delta basins

AbstractDownstream impacts of large hydropower dams are often neglected or underestimated, especially for areas situated at long distances from a dam. Naturalization of the flow hydrograph is an important step in assessing hydro‐ecological and socio‐economic impacts of regulation. Using reservoir inflows, a recently developed, lagged‐flow naturalization method is applied to the lower portion of the regulated Peace River, which forms the northern boundary of the Peace‐Athabasca Delta (PAD). The PAD is a Ramsar wetland of international importance that depends on overland flooding for recharge of its high‐elevation or “perched” basins. Such flooding can be caused by ice jams during the spring breakup of the ice cover or by exceptionally high runoff during open‐water flow conditions. Herein, the focus is on the latter type of event and the resulting recharge of basins located within the Peace sector of the PAD. For the period 1972–2017, regulation has reduced open‐water flow peaks by ~4100 m3/s on average, while limiting the possibility of overbank flooding from the Peace River during the summer. Consistent with earlier findings on spring breakup flows, naturalized open‐water peaks do not exhibit a temporal trend. Recharge of non‐perched basins can also occur with moderately high flows that cause no overland flooding but generate flow reversals in Peace River tributaries. In turn, this mechanism can deliver river water to various basins either directly or via connecting channels. Our results show that flow‐based variables that index the hydrological sustenance of non‐perched basins have been significantly reduced by regulation.

The Drying Peace–Athabasca Delta, Canada: Review and Synthesis of Cryo-Hydrologic Controls and Projections to Future Climatic Conditions

The Peace–Athabasca Delta (PAD) in northern Alberta, Canada is one of the world’s largest inland freshwater deltas, home to large populations of waterfowl, muskrat, beaver, and free-ranging wood bison. The delta region has been designated a Ramsar wetland of international importance and is largely located within the Wood Buffalo National Park, itself being a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Indigenous residents have depended on the delta for centuries to sustain their culture and lifeways. In the past five decades, the PAD has experienced prolonged dry periods in-between rare floods, accompanied by reduction in the area covered by lakes and ponds that provide habitat for aquatic life. Recharge of the higher-elevation, or “perched”, basins depends on overland flooding generated by major spring ice jams that occasionally form in the lower reaches of the Peace and Athabasca Rivers and in their various distributaries. Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and Historical Records for the unregulated Athabasca River are relatively scarce, but conclusively demonstrate the role of ice jams in replenishing perched basins of the Athabasca sector of the PAD. Similar information, coupled with extensive hydrometric and observational data for the regulated Peace River have enabled elucidation of the physical mechanisms that lead to ice-jam flooding of the Peace sector and assessment of regulation impacts on flood frequency. Such understanding can inform design of remedial strategies to moderate or arrest the drying trend of the delta. Climate-related projections to future scenarios suggest reduced frequency of ice-jam floods, albeit with uncertainty.

The Influence of Head of Field Leadership on Employee Performance at TRANTIBUM SATPOLPP Bandung City

In the era of globalization, every organization or company in the form of private or government, of course, has both short-term and long-term goals to be achieved through the activities it undertakes. In an organization or company, leadership is an important factor. In carrying out its duties, the Public Order and Community Peace Sector, the Civil Service Police Unit of the City of Bandung becomes the spearhead in the implementation of Enforcement of Regional Regulations. because in this field it is more in direct contact with the community and regional regulation violators. The leadership factor on employee performance is needed, so that the quality of employee performance continues to improve, of course this is done with good leadership. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of leadership carried out by the Head of Public Order and Public Peace of the Civil Service Police Unit in Bandung City. The data were collected using interviews and questionnaires, analyzed using descriptive and regression techniques. While the program used to manage data uses SPSS(Statistics Program for Social Science) version 23. From the results of this analysis, it can be seen that the leadership carried out by the Head of Public Order and Public Peace of the Civil Service Police Unit of the City of Bandung has gone well, the recapitulation results show that leadership is measured based on the elements of leadership amounting to 4,228 or 72.89%. This is included in the high category. Meanwhile, employee performance is measured based on employee performance dimensions of 2,931 or 72.19%. This is included in the high category. Based on these results, it can be said that the performance of employees in the field of Public Order and Public Peace of the Bandung Civil Service Police Unit is quite positive.

Becoming an Occupation? A Research Agenda Into the Professionalization of the Sport for Development and Peace Sector

Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) has transformed from what some termed a “social movement” to an institutionalized sector with numerous organizations and practitioners involved, resulting in trends that point toward SDP becoming a recognized category of work through professional training. The purpose of this paper is to utilize theories of professions and institutional isomorphism to advance the significance and importance of thinking about SDP as a profession. Three emerging trends that point to the professionalization of SDP are reviewed: (a) increasing opportunities to attain SDP certifications and training, (b) the growing number of SDP-specific academic degrees, and (c) the creation of a SDP knowledge base, particularly in relation to monitoring and evaluation. To conclude, theoretical and practical implications of the professionalization of SDP are discussed and a research agenda is outlined for future research on the continued institutionalization, and professionalization, of the SDP sector.

Peacebuilders and the Pandemic

This research explores how participants who self-identify as peacebuilders have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic personally and professionally. Twenty-seven peacebuilders worldwide reflect on their experience of the COVID-19 pandemic in an online survey and text-based reflective interview, sharing insight into how it has affected them and their work in the peace sector. Peacebuilders have experienced the ambiguity of the COVID-19 pandemic in differing ways, with some seeing opportunities in their work and personal life, and others, threats. The results reveal 12 common aspects that have affected the peacebuilders' lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, in their work, peacebuilders have experienced changes in their relationships with colleagues and stakeholders because of interpersonal barriers due to COVID-19 lockdowns and distancing measures. Concerning the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on peacebuilders' personal lives, the research reveals that their mental health has been negatively affected and peacebuilders see an increase in anxiety. The causes of this anxiety include an inability to make plans and conduct pre-planned peacebuilding projects. The theoretical foundation in this study understands the COVID-19 pandemic as a period of ambiguity and grief. This approach results in a previously unexplored and timely examination of how the pandemic has affected peacebuilders personally and professionally. This paper offers peacebuilding organisations insight into what aspects peacebuilders require support with, to ensure they can continue their essential work now, and in the post-pandemic world.

Volunteers in the sport for development and peace sector: antinomies, liminality, and structural relations

ABSTRACT In this paper, we seek to advance understandings of the contemporary global ‘sport for development and peace’ (SDP) sector, with respect to volunteers and volunteering in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Volunteers play a critical role in organizing and delivering SDP social intervention programmes across the world; most SDP volunteer work is undertaken by local young people who are often presented as a current peer or future community leaders. Specifically, we utilize a unique combination of the concepts of antinomy and liminality to examine systematically the ‘in-between’ positions, roles, and experiences of SDP volunteers. Our analysis spotlights three sets of antinomy. First, categorical antinomies relate to the liminal or in-between positioning of volunteers in terms of their socio-demography (e.g. between adolescence and adulthood), status within NGOs (as neither paid employees nor programme user groups), and their standing between NGOs and communities. Second, the structural antinomies of volunteers relate to the empowering/disempowering aspects of development, positioning between the international development and national public sectors, and their standing between civil society and the private sector. Third, the social antinomies of volunteering centre on their relations with the development NGO, links to donors, and volunteer positions in regard to programme sustainability. The paper draws on an extensive interview- and fieldwork-based research into SDP in three diverse locations (Kosovo, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka) as part of a wider cross-cultural research project on the global SDP sector. The findings may be used as an analytical framework for future research into volunteering, in other SDP locations, in other fields of sport, or on wider social and development sectors, such as in education, community and youth work, leisure and recreation.

Commentary on “Past variation in Lower Peace River ice-jam flood frequency” by Wolfe et al. (2020)

In contrast to a large body of scientific literature that is based on empirical data and physically based and mathematical analyses, Wolfe et al. (2020) cited proxy-based paleolimnological evidence and argued that the regulation of Peace River has not played a role in the reduced incidence of large ice-jam floods. Such events are essential to the sustenance of perched basins located in the Peace Sector of the Peace–Athabasca Delta. Herein, the arguments advanced by Wolfe et al. (2020) are critically examined and shown to be unconvincing. Relevant literature indicates that a drying trend was first noticed after construction of the Bennett Dam. It is shown, moreover, that the belatedly questioned Traditional Knowledge and Historical ice-jam flood record is a reliable source of information, at least with respect to large floods, which are crucial to perched-basin replenishment. Detailed examination of the Wolfe et al. (2020) magnetic susceptibility (MS) profiles and their interpretation points to serious inconsistencies and leads to a renewed recommendation for coring perched, rather than readily flooded, basins in the future. It is also recommended that the oxbow lakes cored nearly two decades ago be revisited to obtain updated MS profiles. Deficiencies in the interpretation of inferred isotopic-composition time series of three perched basins suggest that all factors influencing such environmental variables be considered before drawing conclusions regarding the frequency of past floods.

Multi-year isoscapes of lake water balances across a dynamic northern freshwater delta

Sustainable approaches capable of tracking status, trends and drivers of lake water balances in complex, remote landscapes are needed to inform ecosystem stewardship and water-security actions. At the Peace-Athabasca Delta (Alberta, Canada), a globally recognized freshwater floodplain landscape, concerns about water-level drawdown and multiple potential stressors have prompted need to improve knowledge of lake water balances and establish a lake monitoring program. Yet, the delta’s remoteness and dynamic nature present challenges to these goals. Here we use over 1000 measurements of water isotope composition at ∼60 lakes and 9 river sites during the spring, summer and fall of five consecutive years (2015–2019) to elucidate patterns in lake water balance over time and space, the influential roles of evaporation and river floodwaters, and relations with meteorological conditions and river water levels. Calculation of evaporation-to-inflow ratios using a coupled-isotope tracer approach, displayed via generalized additive models and geospatial ‘isoscapes’, reveal strongly varying lake water balances. Results identify distinct areas vulnerable to lake-level drawdown, given the likelihood of continued decline in ice-jam flood frequency, longer ice-free season duration and reduced snowmelt runoff. Results also demarcate areas of the delta where lakes are more resilient to factors that cause drawdown. The former defines the Peace sector, which is influenced by floodwaters from the Peace River during episodic ice-jam flood events, whereas the latter describes portions of the active floodplain environment of the Athabasca sector which receives more frequent contributions of Athabasca River floodwaters during both spring ice-jam and open-water seasons. Efficiency of water isotope tracers to capture the marked temporal and spatial heterogeneity in lake water balances during this 5 year time span, and their diagnostic responses to key hydrological processes, serves as a foundation for ongoing lake monitoring, an approach readily transferable to other remote and dynamic lake-rich landscapes.

Role of Sports in Peace-Building: Insights from NCAA Community

Role of Sports in Peace-Building: Insights from NCAA Community

Impacts of future climate on the hydrology of a northern headwaters basin and its implications for a downstream deltaic ecosystem

AbstractAnthropogenic and climatic‐induced changes to flow regimes pose significant risks to river systems. Northern rivers and their deltas are particularly vulnerable due to the disproportionate warming of the Northern Hemisphere compared with the Southern Hemisphere. Of special interest is the Peace–Athabasca Delta (PAD) in western Canada, a productive deltaic lake and wetland ecosystem, which has been recognized as a Ramsar site. Both climate‐ and regulation‐induced changes to the hydrological regime of the Peace River have raised concerns over the delta's ecological health. With the damming of the headwaters, the role of downstream unregulated tributaries has become more important in maintaining, to a certain degree, a natural flow regime, particularly during open‐water conditions. However, their flow contributions to the mainstem river under future climatic conditions remain largely uncertain. In this study, we first evaluated the ability of a land‐surface hydrological model to simulate hydro‐ecological relevant indicators, highlighting the model's strengths and weaknesses. Then, we investigated the streamflow conditions in the Smoky River, the largest unregulated tributary of the Peace River, in the 2071–2100 versus the 1981–2010 periods. Our modelling results revealed significant changes in the hydrological regime of the Smoky River, such as increased discharge in winter (+190%) and spring (+130%) but reduced summer flows (−33%) in the 2071–2100 period compared with the baseline period, which will have implications for the sustainability of the downstream PAD. In particular, the projected reductions in 30‐day and 90‐day maximum flows in the Smoky River will affect open‐water flooding, which is important in maintaining lake levels and connectivity to perimeter delta wetlands in the Peace sector of the PAD. The evaluation of breakup and freeze‐up flows for the 2071–2100 period showed mixed implications for the ice‐jam flooding, which is essential for recharging high‐elevation deltaic basins. Thus, despite projected increase in annual and spring runoff in the 2071–2100 period from the Smoky sub‐basin, the sustainability of the PAD still remains uncertain.

Framing a 21st century case for the social value of sport in South Africa

Following recent global stakeholder configurations, policy frameworks and strife for multi-levelled and agency policy coherence within the Sport for Development and Peace sector, the Kazan Action Plan (2017) calls for evidence-informed decision-making though building a case for sport in playing a part in sustainable development as envisaged by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. As Sport and Recreation South Africa is in the process of updating the 2009 Case for Sport and Recreation document it is deemed timely that academic discourse of evidence production should be addressed. This paper provides a synopsis of robust evidence around the social impact of sport relating to global strategic imperatives emanating for UN agencies (particularly UNICEF and UNESCO), regional and national public sport structures. Contextual realities further present a filter for relevant data and arguments to capture a meaningful body of knowledge from which decision-makers can draw significant insights. The social role of sport within national government priorities in South Africa features phenomena related to nation-building, cohesion and social transformation with relevance to the ‘panacea proposition’ of sport. The methodological rigor, critical scrutiny, programme theories and the complexity of layering realities should drive the profiling of an evidence base that would also serve a decolonised approach towards theory-building.

Rethinking Sportland: A New Research Agenda for the Sport for Development and Peace Sector

Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) has grown into a huge global field of sport-related activity and intervention and is a heavily researched subject in the social scientific study of sport. In this article, we advance the case for a new research agenda in SDP, in part to contribute more fully to sustainable development through substantial societal change. We argue that SDP research should engage with wider literatures and theories, notably on political economy and development; take full account of structural changes within the development sphere; and examine new areas of intervention within SDP per se. To develop our analysis, our discussion is organized into six main parts. We begin by introducing the concept of “Sportland” to reimagine SDP as a strongly institutionalized field of development activity with its own stakeholder networks. Second, we outline the key aspects of prior SDP/Sportland research on which we seek to build. Third, we examine key changes in the political economy and geopolitics of development, which serve to point Sportland scholars toward engaging with fresh literatures in these fields. Fourth, we explore the implications of these changes to retheorize development. Fifth, we detail new ways ahead for Sportland with regard to policy, practice, and research, with particular reference to the position of different organizational stakeholders within SDP. Finally, we consider specific areas of future intervention and inquiry within Sportland that require the attention of researchers. Our analysis is underpinned by many research studies and projects in Sportland which we have undertaken separately or collectively over at least the last decade.

Source Apportionment of Background PAHs in the Peace-Athabasca Delta (Alberta, Canada) Using Molecular Level Radiocarbon Analysis.

The downstream accumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Peace-Athabasca Delta (PAD), an ecologically important landscape, is a key issue of concern given the rapid development of the oil sands industry in Northern Alberta, Canada. In addition to PAHs derived from industrial activity (i.e., oil sands mining) within the Athabasca watershed, however, forest fires and erosion of fossil fuel deposits within both the Athabasca and Peace watersheds are two potentially important natural sources of PAHs delivered to the PAD. Consequently, evaluating the environmental impact of mining activities requires a quantitative understanding of natural, background PAHs. Here, we utilize molecular-level natural-abundance radiocarbon measurements on an amalgamated sediment record from a Peace River flood-susceptible oxbow lake in the northern Peace sector of the PAD to quantitatively discriminate sources of naturally occurring alkylated PAHs (fossil and modern biomass). A radiocarbon mass balance quantified a predominantly natural petrogenic source (93% petrogenic, 7% forest fire) for alkylated PAHs during the past ∼50 years. Additionally, a significant petrogenic component determined for retene, a compound usually considered a biomarker for softwood combustion, suggests that its use as a unique forest fire indicator may not be suitable in PAD sediments receiving Peace watershed-derived fluvial inputs.

Cuban sport policy and South–South development cooperation: an overview and analysis of the Escuela Internacional de Educación Física y Deporte

The Escuela Internacional de Educación Física y Deporte (EIEFD) is a university-level sport school near Havana, Cuba that provides scholarships for international students to obtain a degree in physical education, coaching and sports sciences. The mandate of the school is to prepare graduates to return to their home countries in order to work towards sustainable and transformational development in and through sport. In this paper, we examine the historical and political forces that have shaped this particular practice of Cuban foreign policy and compare it to current trends in international sport policy, particularly sport for development. Drawing on fieldwork in Cuba, we explore the reasons why a resource-poor country like Cuba would continue to invest in a programme like the EIEFD. Our main argument is that when considered against trends in the nascent Sport for Development and Peace sector, the EIEFD suggests an alternative approach based largely on cooperation and distinct from the practice of sport for development as aid or stewardship. It also stands as a notable example of a state-backed initiative that positions sport as a form of rights-based development rather than the more instrumental notion of sport as a tool for development.

Timescales of hydrolimnological change in floodplain lakes of the Peace‐Athabasca Delta, northern Alberta, Canada

ABSTRACTRepeated measurements over 3 years (2003–2005) were made on a series of lakes along a hydrological gradient in the Peace‐Athabasca Delta (PAD), Canada, to characterize the role of river flooding on limnological conditions of northern floodplain lakes and to identify the patterns and timescales of limnological change after flooding. River floodwaters elevate concentrations of suspended sediment, total phosphorus (TP), SO4 and dissolved silica (DSi) and reduce concentrations of total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and most ions, which leads to increased limnological homogeneity among lakes. After flooding, limnological changes occur at two distinct timescales. In the weeks to months after flooding, water clarity increases as suspended sediments and TP settle out of the water column, but concentrations of DOC, SO4, TKN and ions do not change appreciably. However, in the absence of flooding for many years to decades, evaporative concentration leads to an increase in most nutrients, DOC and ions. Contrary to a prevailing paradigm, these results suggest that regular flooding is not required to maintain high nutrient concentrations. In light of anticipated declines in river discharge, we predict that limnological conditions in the southern Athabasca sector will become increasingly less dominated by the short‐term effects of flooding, and resemble nutrient‐ and solute‐rich lakes in the northern Peace sector that are infrequently flooded. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Solidarity, Counter-Hegemony, and Development: Exploring New Dimensions of Cuba's Sport-Based Internationalism

Cuban internationalism has been recognized as a unique foreign policy approach that merges “soft power” with comprehensive development. While much has been written about the country's programs of cooperation, outreach, and solidarity, notably within the health sector, little has been mentioned to date about the extensive cooperation Cuba seeks with other nations in the global South through sport and physical education. This is a significant gap given the recent attention paid to sport within international development. In this article we explore Cuba's sport-based internationalism by illustrating how EI Instituto Nacional de Deportes, Educación Física y Recreación (INDER) employs hundreds of Cuban personnel to engage in sport programs in three unique streams. First, Cuban sport professionals work alongside other Cuban health and social workers in marginalized communities throughout the global South; second, INDER trains hundreds of students from other parts of the global South as coaches and physical trainers; and third, elite Cuban athletes fulfill for-profit coaching contracts with elite sport teams in the global North. We argue that Cuba's international sport programs are representative of a commitment to sport that is grounded in national discourses of both universal participation and international solidarity; as such, Cuban sport policy should be further recognized as a notable process within the burgeoning Sport for Development and Peace sector.

The Sport, Development and Peace Sector: A Model of Four Social Policy Domains

AbstractThis paper examines the ‘sport, development and peace’ (SDP) sector which has grown substantially at a global level over the past decade. The SDP sector is located conceptually within the broader ‘global civil society’, a highly contested policy field that features diverse political actors and ideologies. The main discussion sets out four ideal-types within the SDP policy domain that tend to be associated with specific institutions: first, neo-liberal social policies, as embodied by private or commercial interests, such as transnational corporations and forms of ‘corporate social responsibility’; second, ‘developmental interventionist’ policies associated with non-governmental and community-based organisations; third, ‘strategic developmentalist’ policies associated with national and international governmental organisations, and sport federations; and, fourth, social justice policies associated with new social movements and critical NGOs. Each of these domains is examined in detail. Three main types of interrelationship across the domains are then identified. The paper concludes by arguing for a more sophisticated understanding of sport's policy capabilities, stronger cross-domain partnerships and a renewal of the SDP sector through a fresh focus on social justice issues.