For decades, river management in Quebec has focused almost exclusively on water. However, rivers do not just carry water; they also transport sediments, and ignoring this may explain why current river management practices fall short. At last week’s GeoSpectives seminar—an annual seminar series hosted by McGill’s Department of Geography—Concordia University[Read More…]
Tag: geography
The cooling power of wetlands: Climate benefits in Canada’s prairies
Amid rising global temperatures and intensifying heatwaves, wetlands are among Earth’s essential natural defences. However, Canada’s Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) ecosystems are under threat from decades of drainage and agricultural expansion that have turned much of the landscape into cropland. This shift reduces their capacity to store carbon and regulate[Read More…]
Culture Shock 2025: QPIRG hosts workshop exploring Milton-Parc’s hostile urbanism
On Oct. 23, the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) McGill hosted the “Walking as method: Exploring hostile design in Milton-Parc” workshop as part of its annual Culture Shock event series. This exploration was led by Cara Chellew, PhD candidate in McGill’s School of Urban Planning, as well as Jonathan[Read More…]
Statistics Canada researcher shares insights into Canadian heat wave
Matthew Quick, a research analyst at Statistics Canada, gave an insightful talk at McGill on Friday, Nov. 3, about the impacts of extreme heat across Canada and the many socio-economic factors that contribute to an individual’s vulnerability to these effects. He presented three of his recent studies, each illuminating a[Read More…]
Putting nature in the foreground
The one constant for me throughout this turbulent pandemic has been seeking refuge in the outdoors. During the headlines, elections, and political battles that constantly preoccupied everyone’s minds, nature became a source of comfort and solace. It was in April 2020 when the virus initially surged in New England, right[Read More…]
Deep learning algorithm predicts early warning signals of climate tipping points
Tipping points are all around us, but it’s hard to see them coming. When a person falls off a bike, a patient has a heart attack, or a campfire escalates to a wildfire, it is nearly impossible to identify the exact moment at which disaster became inevitable. But it might[Read More…]
Conservation in the digital age
The power of a convincing story often goes overlooked in the scientific community. While most researchers opt to display their findings in flashy publications or high impact journals, others are taking a less traditional but conceivably more impactful approach at communicating their findings. Story maps are a simple yet elegant[Read More…]
A moving target
Heading down Stanley for a second time, you are peering out of the window from the driver’s seat of your 2003 Honda Civic. Class starts in five minutes, and yet it remains elusive: The parking spot. The source of these parking troubles could be the endless Montreal construction or the[Read More…]
Mapping McGill’s campus
McGill’s Open Mapping Group collaboratively tracks accessible routes on campus.
A McGill club’s mapping mission
U3 students Hannah Rebentisch, Caroline Thompson, Hannah Ker, Jan Oledan, and Cameron Power, with various concentrations in geography and geographic information systems (GIS), are bringing the mission of mapping to McGill. After attending the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team conference in September 2017, they met representatives from a global organization called YouthMappers, which[Read More…]