The Information Without Borders conference is excited to announce that Dr. Patricia Manuel will be speaking at the 2015 conference, during the breakout session “Information in Use: Planning & Adaptation Strategies”.
Dr. Patricia Manuel joined Dalhousie’s School of Planning in 2001 after teaching environmental planning at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design from 1988. A geographer by training, she works mainly in the areas of environmental planning and community planning. She is cross-appointed to the School of Occupational Therapy. Dr. Manuel is also a visiting faculty member with the University Centre of the Westfjords, Akureyri University, Iceland where she teaches a course each year in coastal planning as part of the Coastal and Marine Management graduate program.
Dr. Manuel conducts applied research in climate change adaptation planning, focussing on coastal communities, as well as wetlands interpretation and management and watershed planning and management. She also researches community planning and design and health. Her teaching assignments include theory and practice courses in landscape analysis, landscape ecology, geology and land use planning, coastal planning, research design, and studios in environmental planning. She has also taught community design principles for students in the health professions. She regularly supervises undergraduate and graduate student thesis and major independent projects in topics relating to environmental, coastal and watershed planning.
Dr. Manuel serves on the National Coastal Assessment Advisory Committee (National Resources Canada-Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Division) and the Atlantic Climate Adaptations Solutions Association Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation. She is very active in the local environment and planning community working extensively with watershed groups and ENGOs around the region providing professional expertise to address planning and environment concerns. She has participated in working groups that have included the Halifax Harbour Solutions project (sewage management), and writing the management plan for the McNabs and Lawlor Islands Provincial Park (Halifax Harbour). She continues to serve as a member of the Park Advisory Committee. She has also served as a member of the board of directors of organizations like the Captain William Spry Community Centre, the MacIntosh Run Watershed Association, the Eastern Chebucto Peninsula Community Planning Working Group, and the Williams Lake Conservation Company.