Hurlbert, who works in the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy and serves as the Canada Research Chair for Climate Change, Energy and Sustainability, is heading up a new project focused on climate change policy that has received the lion’s share of $3.5 million in new funding for U of R researchers that was delivered this June.
Hurlbert and her team are examining Saskatchewan’s water resources, with an interest in how to protect water security and quality under weather-related stressors, like drought, flooding or even wildfires. It’s an exciting opportunity to do a comparative case study, said Hurlbert, to exchange strategies and, for Saskatchewan, inform future response preparation.
The two northern and southern hemispheric regions are also interestingly connected by weather patterns, said Hurlbert, which could result in what she describes as “cascading risks” to agriculture production on a global scale. “We’re not working in a silo; we’re working multi-sector and multi-discipline, and we’re working with people.”
“It’s really important that communities and people are building their own plans for how they’re going to respond potentially to drought and flooding,” said Hurlbert. “It’s bottom-up policy practices that advance sustainability.”Article content