The School of Planning embraces and mobilizes the Faculty of Environment commitment to protecting and enhancing natural (ecological). To this end, research is conducted on a wide range of planning techniques (ranging from chemistry-based science approaches to policy-based management methods) which may be applied to protect and foster environmental resources such as waterways and forests.
The following papers demonstrate representative work in these areas.
M. Stone and B.G. Krishnappan, 2003. Floc morphology and size distributions of cohesive sediment in steady state flow. Water Research, 37, 2739-2747.
The erosion rate of deposited sediment is governed by shear stress at the sediment-water interface, the depositional history of the sediment bed and properties of the sediment. This manuscript quantifies erosion rates of cohesive sediment as a function of depositional history and shear stress and is the first to describe changes in floc morphology for eroded sediment from beds with different depositional histories. Such information is required to model the transport and fate of sediment and associated contaminants in aquatic systems.
D. De Boer, M. Hassan, B. McVicar and M. Stone, 2005. Recent (1999-2002) Canadian research on contemporary processes of river erosion and sedimentation and river mechanics. Hydrological Processes, 19, 265-283.
This paper is a review of recent advances in Canadian research on contemporary processes of river erosion, sedimentation and river mechanics. I wrote the section on cohesive sediment transport which is the focus of much of my field and laboratory research.
S. Michaels, N. Goucher, and D. McCarthy, 2006. Considering knowledge
uptake within a cycle of transforming data, information and knowledge. Review of Policy Research 23:1:267-279.
Knowledge uptake, having decision makers assimilate the ideas of experts, is recognized as an important stimulus to bringing about policy change. This is particularly true in the realm of environmental policy making, which is characterized by knowledge intensity, complexity and multi-facetted concerns. Using examples from an innovative watershed management organization, this paper presents a heuristic for understanding how knowledge uptake occurs within a cycle of organizational reasoning.
S. Michaels, N. Goucher and D. McCarthy, 2006. Policy windows, policy
change and organizational learning: Watersheds in the evolution of watershed
management. Environmental Management 38:6:983-992.
This paper explores agenda setting - how issues attract enough attention that action is taken to address them - at the regional scale. Professional staff responsible for managing the Canadian Province of Ontarios water resources on a watershed basis identified three events as pivotal in changing regional water resources policy in Ontario: Hurricane Hazel in 1954; the Ontario Ministry of the Environment cut operating grants to conservation authorities by 42% between 1995 and 1997; and the contamination of the municipal drinking water system for the Town of Walkerton in 2000.
D. Schmitt, and R. Suffling, 2006. Managing eastern North American woodlands in a cultural context. Landscape and Urban Planning. 78: 457-464.
Most of the the woodlands eastern North America need to be understood as part of a cultural landscape. The urban and agricultural matrix of southern Ontario is a typical novel landscape, with embedded remnant woodlands. It serves as a model to understand how eastern forests are regarded as representative of a previous wilderness landscape, but are profoundly affected by historical anthropogenic forces and external processes in the current landscape. These woodlands change in unpredictably, as envisaged in the new ecological paradigm, with no single, deterministic ecological pathway, and no final stable state. Research, decision-making, and management requirements for eastern woodlots are identified using this perspective. The paper summarizes research needs based on previous publications and recent workshops concerning southern Ontario woodlots.
