Climate Proof Design

Our panellists will examine the impact of extreme weather on communities and discuss how we can address these phenomena through methods like climate-proof design A discussion on some of the associated challenges and opportunities in preparing for the future will follow. The event will end with drinks and networking.   

Panellists:

Fransje Hooimeijer studied Architecture at the Willem de Kooning Academy and Arts and Culture Studies in Rotterdam Erasmus University. Since 1997 she works as an independent researcher in the fields of architecture, urban design and landscape architecture. In addition to various publications and exhibits, she has done research for governments and corporate clients. She received her PhD in Urbanism from the Faculty of Architecture at the Delft University of Technology in 2011 with the dissertation investigating the relation between water management and urban design. From 2009-2012, she has worked as a researcher at the TU Delft and at TNO, investigating the technology of urban development in the light of climate change and the energy transition. One of her main research topics is integrating the subsurface system into above-ground spatial development. Since 2012 continuing research and teaching at TU Delft into system integration of technical systems of urban development in national and international context. She is specialised in interdisciplinary design processes, methods, tools and theory, transferring this to students and practice.

Lot Locher Prior to joining ONE as the International Director for Climate, Lot Locher set up the now-internationally-acknowledged initiative, Amsterdam Rainproof (2013), linking her international experience in architecture, urbanism, and landscape architecture to urban climate adaptation. At ONE, Lot combines her experience of setting up programs and initiating public-private networks with practical design experience in climate and water projects (e.g., cloudburst resilience, heat, drought, and floodproof and sustainable urban development). Her drive and social skills help her stimulate change in the policies and practices of the various actors in the urban realm.

Marco Hoogvliet is an expert in urban (ground)water and soil systems, and manager of Deltares’ strategic research program Sustainable Delta Cities. He specializes in constructing integral solutions which add to the sustainability and resilience of the urban area and utilize the potential of the water and subsurface system. As a project manager he heads multidisciplinary teams that work on climate adaptation and resource efficiency in cities. Other specialties are climate effects and adaptation measures, governance, urban planning & design, geo information analysis, Geo-ICT, project management, knowledge- & information management.

Virtual Research Roundtable

Protecting the nationality of Pacific Islanders as climate change hits  Scientia Professor Jane McAdam delivered a talk that outlines the findings of a ground-breaking new report providing the first in-depth look at the legal risks of statelessness and nationality loss in the context of climate change in the Pacific. It finds that under current laws, some Pacific Islanders who move abroad permanently risk losing their citizenship, or the ability to pass it on to their children. Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO, AO DPhil (Oxf) BA (Hons) LLB (Hons) (Syd) is Scientia Professor of Law and Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney. Professor McAdam publishes widely in international refugee law and forced migration, with a particular focus on displacement in the context of climate change and disasters. 

Urban planning and Delta Systems, the role of urban design in establishing resilient communities Dr. Fransje Hooimeijer delivered a talk explaining how communities in delta systems are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and how careful urban planning can help these communities plan for the future.  Dr. Fransje Hooimeijer is an Associate Professor at Delft University and specialises in system integration of technical & natural conditions in urban design and to this end an interdisciplinary approach. In her research and teaching she takes the perspective on the city as technical re-construction of the natural systems and investigates how these conditions can be synthesized in urban design to aim for healthy cities. 

The role of applied research in strengthening African communities  The Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation (ICCA) at the University of Nairobi consists of a diversified team of experts and researchers drawn from across the University and hosted a session explaining how capability development in Africa is contributing to communities’ needs for capacity building over the next decade and the role of universities in supporting communities to prepare.  Established in 2011, ICCA is dedicated to building the human capacity necessary to address the unique climate change adaptation needs of vulnerable communities. ICCA works through teaching, action-oriented research, the development of innovative technologies and community participation. It provides expert advice for national and regional policy formulation and implementation. ICCA leads the effort to adapt to climate change impacts through teaching, research, innovation and community participation.  ICCA serves stakeholders through the undertaking of climate change and adaptation research and knowledge exchange; the development and implementation of action-oriented community outreach programmes; and the generation and dissemination of policy advice on climate change and adaptation. 

Understanding water security in protecting vulnerable communities around the world  The student community from the Engineering and Sciences School from Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Sonora Norte facilitated a discussion around the connection between climate change and water security and some of the best practices globally in helping communities become more resilient to water related issues. 

Opening Keynote | Reimagining Australia’s relationship with Climate 

Professor Claire Annesley, UNSW Sydney  

Claire Annesley is Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, leading the faculty to achieve its vision: through creativity, collaboration and inclusion we seek and solve problems to improve life on earth. She has worked across this large and diverse faculty to develop an ambitious and optimistic strategy, ADA2051, establish a unique problem-solving capacity, ADA Innovation Hub, and secure major collaborations such as Massive Action Sydney, with Chicago-based designers Bruce Mau, Bisi Williams and their Massive Change Network.  

Claire is Professor of Politics and an expert in gender in institutions, politics, and policy. Her most recent book Cabinets, Ministers and Gender with Karen Beckwith (Case Western Reserve, USA) and Susan Franceschet (Calgary, Canada) (2019, Oxford University Press), uncovers the rules that have meant that historically women have been underrepresented in cabinet across seven democracies, and why this is now changing. Claire has received numerous international awards for her research, including the 2011 Richard Rose Prize by the Political Studies Association (UK), the 2011 Carrie Chapman Catt Prize by Iowa State University (USA), the 2012 Public Policy Section Prize by the American Political Science Association (USA) and the 2016 Johan Skytte manuscript award by Uppsala University (Sweden).  

Originally from the United Kingdom, Claire previously held professorial and leadership positions at the University of Manchester (2000-2015) and the University of Sussex (2015-2020). She is the mother of two teenagers and loves to swim in the ocean.  

Seminar 1 | Protecting the wellbeing of communities 

This seminar aims to provide insights into the diverse ways communities will be impacted by climate change and the practical approaches available to ensure Australian businesses and governments are prepared for the future. 

Seminar Keynote & Moderator | Dr Paul Barnes Australia’s threat landscape has increased dramatically in recent years with the catastrophic bushfires and flooding, not to mention the impact of COVID on emergency service responders. Dr. Paul Barnes will reflect on the learnings from the bushfire and flooding royal commissions to outline what steps Australia need to emphasize now to position itself to better cope with the conditions of our near future. Dr Paul Barnes has over 25 years of experience within public sector emergency management and as a practitioner-academic in risk and crisis management. Paul has completed projects for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies, the European Commission (European Research Agency) and the Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet on national risk assessment frameworks. He serves as a member of the World Economic Forum Expert Network on Risk & Resilience, the UN Global Risk Assessment Framework (GRAF) Working Groups and the International Military Council on Climate & Security (Washington DC). 

Seminar Panellists: 

• Andrew Gissing  is the CEO of Natural Hazards Research Australia. He works with government, business and not-for-profits to make our communities safer and more resilience.Andrew has over 20 years disaster management experience, including in senior executive roles. He previously held the position of Deputy Chief Officer / Director Emergency Management and Communication with the Victoria State Emergency Service and, before joining Natural Hazards Research Australia was a General Manager at Risk Frontiers. Andrew holds Masters (Hons) of Science and Bachelors of Economics degrees and has published in leading international journals. 
• Jennifer George is the founder of Nakoudu, a digital platform for technical innovators, users and investors to collaborate and connect – helmed by a team of experts who offer guidance and support at all stages of corporate growth. Jennifer is also the Chair of National Sustainable Cities and Communities Committee for Standards Australia, the newly formed national working group that mirrors the equivalent international group. Assisting with the development of digital implementation and integration standards for sustainability in the Australian context. 
• Dr Andrew Dansie (Dansie) is Academic Lead, Humanitarian Engineering at UNSW. He is the UNSW Engineering Lead for Gulu University, is on the UNDP vetted expert roster for international freshwater resources management, and Editor-in-Chief for the UNESCO/Springer Nature book ‘Water, Energy and Food Security in the Pacific’. Dansie has 18 years of experience in the water and development sector spanning the private sector, the United Nations, universities and an NGO. His sediment expertise has also seen him undertake windborne erosion investigations in Southern Africa and he is now leading the installation of air quality instrumentation in Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu and determine human health impacts.  
• A/Prof Kristen Splinter is an ARC Future Fellow and has over 15 years of applied and fundamental research experience in the fields of coastal processes and hazards. Her research covers broad topics including storm to inter-annual shoreline change monitoring and modelling; coastal erosion and beach recovery; dune erosion; remote sensing of the coastal environment; and reef-top hydrodynamics. Her team pioneers the use of remote sensing in the coastal zone, including lidar, UAVs (drones), satellites, and video cameras within Australia.  She is a committee member of the Women in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering (WICGE) and also serves on the Engineers Australia NSW Coasts, Oceans, and Ports Engineering Panel (COPEP), is an Associate Editor for JGR-Earth Surface, Senior Editor for Cambridge Prisms: Coastal Futures; and is on a number of Editorial Boards. 

Seminar 2 | Responsible blue and green economies 

This seminar aims to simplify how to identify responsible carbon offset programs and consider a wholistic appraisal process when assessing the broader biodiversity and community benefits of projects. 

Seminar Keynote & Moderator | Dr William Glamore Dr William Glamore is an Associate Professor at the Water Research Laboratory, UNSW Sydney. William leads the Ecoengineering Research Group focusing on natural-based solutions for the blue economy.  He is a Churchill Fellow and a Peter Cullen Fellow, with 20+ years’ experience in implementing large-scale restoration projects related to blue carbon.  In 2021, he co-authored the Blue Carbon Method for the Emission Reduction Fund and is a co-founder of Restore Blue Pty Ltd, the world’s first blue carbon CSP.   

Seminar Panellists: 

• Dr Mariana Mayer Pinto is a Scientia Senior Lecturer and member of the Centre for Marine Science and Innovation (CMSI) at UNSW. Her research aims to understand the different ways in which human activities, such as pollution and urbanisation, affect the marine environment with the ultimate goal of developing innovative and effective solutions to conserve, restore and rehabilitate marine ecosystems. 
• Aymeric Maudous is the founder of Lord of the Trees, a global reforestation company that combines precision drone technology with the knowledge of environmental experts, scientists, engineers, and indigenous communities to replant seeds and grow new ecosystems in deforested areas worldwide. LOTT combines a multi-faceted High-Tech (fully autonomous programmed drones, robotics, AI, and nature-based solutions) and LoTEK (Local Traditional Ecological Knowledge) approach to restore entire ecosystems to their original state. Lord of the Trees offers a revolution in reforestation, planting on a vast scale that is faster, cheaper and more efficient than ever before. 
• Angus Dennis joined Australian Ethical in January 2022 as an Investment Director. He has over 25 years’ experience in investment management with a particular focus on ethical / responsible investment funds for much of that time. Prior to joining Australian Ethical, Angus worked at both Vanguard and AMP Capital in roles across institutional, investment management and product development. In his career Angus has been involved with ethical / responsible investment funds across a breadth of asset sectors and diversified strategies. Angus has degrees in Economics and Law from the University of Sydney, is a Fellow of FINSIA, and is admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW. He has also completed the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership course: “Business and Climate Change: Towards Net Zero Emissions”. At an industry level, Angus was involved in the development of the Responsible Investment Certification Program for the sector’s peak body, the Responsible Investment Association Australasia. 
• Aaron Eger is the Founder and Program Director of the Kelp Forest Alliance, a global community of practice and a freely available global database on restoration projects where people can connect and share lessons learned from their own projects. By bringing data and people together, Aaron was the lead author on the first ever kelp restoration guidebook, and the first global review and analysis of kelp forest restoration across 300 years of practice. He is now working on setting a global ambition for kelp forest restoration. 

Seminar 3 | Australia’s role in global climate security Good functioning governments are critical to establishing effective policy. How governments across all tiers align themselves, from local to international forums is critical to ensuring communities work together to become climate resilient. This seminar aims to explore the latest research thinking in climate related governance and the role of Australia in promoting climate ambition at home and further afield. 

Seminar Keynote & Moderator | Scientia A/Prof. Elizabeth Thurbon Scientia A/Prof. Elizabeth Thurbon’s research examines the strategic role of the state in the process of national techno-industrial transformation and adaptation, with a focus on the state’s strategic role in the clean energy shift. She is currently leading a large ARC-funded Discovery project on East Asia’s Clean Energy Transition and its Implications for Australia. Her most recent co-authored book Developmental Environmentalism (Oxford University Press, in press) provides the first comprehensive account of East Asia’s green energy shift, and highlights the powerful and symbiotic role of state ambition, geo-strategic competition, and capitalist market dynamics     in driving forward the region’s greening efforts. 

Seminar Panellists: 

• A/Professor Fengshi Wu is a world leading scholar in environmental politics, state-society relations, and global governance with an empirical focus on China and Asia. Currently, A/Prof. Wu is the inaugural Series Editor of Environment and Society in Asia, Amsterdam University Press, and a member the Executive Committee and the Board of the International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR). 
• A/ Professor Krishna Shrestha is an Indigenous scholar with global recognition and local grounding.  He has an enduring passion and commitment to the ethical and accountable research, education, and leadership. His scholarship works alongside a commitment to activism and public engagement and addresses urgent questions pertaining to indigenous rights, climate justice, public policy, the right to land and the everyday and systemic struggles that continue to dominate the lives of the most marginalised communities in the world.  
• Dr. Srinjoy Bose researches topics in critical peace & security studies including, the political economy of statebuilding and peacebuilding in ‘fragile’ and deeply divided states and societies. I also consult as a geopolitics, security, and NGO analyst. In my different professional capacities, I work with public-sector experts, government officials, diplomats, UN/World Bank and INGO representatives, activists, and even armed groups. 
• Dr. Monika Barthwal-Datta’s research broadly focuses on critical approaches to security and international relations, and regional security in South Asia and the Indo-Pacific, with a particular focus on non-traditional security issues including food security and climate change. She is a Director of School of Policy and Governance (SPG) India, which has recently concluded its first iteration of the SPG Net Zero Fellowship for political leaders at various levels of governance in India.

Seminar 4 | Raising the ambition on climate solutions This seminar aims to explore the role of innovation and knowledge sharing in solving climate problems and highlight the role of partnerships to help accelerate and scale decarbonisation of the Australian economy. 

Seminar Keynote & Moderator | Assoc. Prof Michele Roberts 

Associate Professor Dr Michele Roberts is Associate Dean, Post-Experience Programs at UNSW Business School and Academic Director of the Australian Graduate School of Management, where she oversees AGSM’s suite of MBA programs. Michele is the inaugural Chair of the UNSW Business School SDG Committee and member of the UNSW SDG Steering Committee. 

Dr Roberts teaches MBA courses in ‘Foundations of Responsible Management’, ‘Sustainable Business’ and ‘The Race to Net Zero & Transition to Clean Energy’. She works closely with Executive Education clients and is Academic Director of the AGSM Sustainability Academy, which she has developed and delivered to global clients in banking, energy, and government. Michele is a mentor for EFMD Global, where she supports other Business Schools to embed the Sustainable Development Goals.  

Seminar Panellists: 

• Zarmeen Pavri Brings over 27years’ experience, having a multi-dimensional background covering ethical and impact investing, venture capital, funds management, product development. She has experience in the international development sector where she was the Impact Fund Manager, responsible for managing the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT’s) social impact innovation portfolios across Asia-Pacific. She is currently the Co-Founder, Partner and Chief Impact Officer of SDGx – an Impact VC investment management and advisory firm, where she runs and manages a global climate tech impact fund. She further holds the position as the Oceania Regional Head for the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and serves on a variety of fiduciary and non-fiduciary boards. 
• Dr Zsofia Korosy is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Law and Justice at UNSW. Among other research interests, she is involved in a project on the regulation of green technology in Australia, supported by the UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation and the UNSW Sustainable Development Reform Hub. 
• Assoc. Prof Melissa Edwards is a Director of the Executive MBA program at the UTS Business School. She researches and teaches about sustainability, sustainable enterprise and responsible management, complexity theory, and social impact. Her work draws across disciplines with an overarching aim to understand how people organise, learn and adapt to enable sustainable transitions. She conducts research that draws together sustainability, complexity, social capital, and network theories focusing on social impact and new business models, especially the Circular Economic and B Corps. 
• Professor Anthony Zwi’s research specialises in international development policy and practice and its interface with global health. Anthony is especially interested in development and health responses to disasters and conflict and to how systems are established in the aftermath of crises. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a wide range of inequities in how health systems operate, health technologies are made available, vaccines and other supplies are distributed, and communities are able to participate in the policies which affect their health and social wellbeing.