Intro to Adaptation Learning Network
This course was developed as part of the Adaptation Learning Network (ALN) project, a project funded by Natural Resources Canada, and the British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. The ALN project was a three-year project designed to help professionals in British Columbia who work at the front line of climate adaptation to integrate adaptation competencies into their professional practice, through education, training and networking. Adaptation Learning Network (ALN) is focused on capacity-building to address these issues. ALN is operated through the Resilience by Design Lab at Royal Roads University and is funded by Natural Resources Canada BRACE and the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. The ALN is informed through an active Advisory which meets quarterly and includes representation from several BC professional associations (EGBC (engineers), BCSLA (landscape architects), PIBC (city planners), ABCFP (foresters), CAB (biologists), and BCIA (agrologists).
Understanding Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Change is the most recent course offering developed by Adaptation Learning Network (ALN), which developed and implemented 11 continuing professional development courses in 2020 – 2021. These courses are now offered to working professionals through 5 BC post-secondary institutions (UBC, Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria, Vancouver Island University, and Royal Roads University), and cover topics that range from the connection between climate science and climate impacts (fires, floods, heat domes, etc.), evaluating the financial impacts of climate change, how to advance climate change knowledge in communities, workplaces, and projects, and how we can value and utilize natural assets to avert climate impact disasters in towns and regions. These climate adaptation-oriented courses are guided by the Climate Adaptation Competency Framework (CACF) which was also developed as part of the ALN project.
In 2022, evolutions of ALN’s work will include (1) re-working the courses so they better align with the CACF, qualifying them as micro-credentials that are recognized by post-secondary institutions, professional regulators and employers, and verified through digital certificates; (2) close collaboration with Climate Risk Institute (CRI) in advancing the adoption of the Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee (PIEVC) Engineering Protocol, developed by Engineers Canada to establish and mediate the adaptive capacity of infrastructure, based on climate data. CRI’s Infrastructure Resilience Professional (IRP) Program is a suite of continuing professional development courses that augment courses offered through ALN and provide another layer of recognition and accreditation for professionals who work to protect infrastructure from the devastating impacts of climate change.
