News

Several students joined Dr. Wayne Caldwell, Interim OAC Dean and an Environmental Health Manager, Helen Doyle from York Region Public Health to present at the Latornell Symposium on November 17, 2015. The session entitled “Building Resiliency with Rural Communities to Adapt to the Impacts of Climate Change” showcased recent work from the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development concerning healthy rural community planning as well as considerations for green infrastructure in rural locales.

First year Master of Landscape Architecture student, Daniel Rotsztain publishes adult colouring book titled "All the Libraries Toronto". 

All the Libraries Toronto is an adult colouring book featuring illustrations and descriptions of all 100 branches of the Toronto Public Library (and two bookmobiles), recently published by Dundurn Press. 

On Saturday November 7th, two University of Guelph, Rural Planning and Development students traveled to Ryerson to compete in the 1st ever OPPI Student Case Competition. Queens, York, Waterloo, UofT, and Ryerson were the opposition schools, as they went head-to-head to develop the transit hub for the City of Hamilton's Light Rail System. The site to be planned was the Queenston traffic circle location near the historical City Motor Hotel, where planners from Hamilton suggest they wanted to implement mixed use buildings incorporating both residential and commercial amenities.

Congratulations to Paola Vasquez, a PhD Rural Studies student who took part in a project that is receiving the United Nations' Moment for Change Climate Award (1 of 16 globally) to be awarded in Paris, France. The Momentum for Change initiative is spearheaded by the UN Climate Change secretariat to shine a light on some of the most innovative, scalable and replicable examples of what people are doing to address climate change.

In 2014, Dr. Karen Landman was invited by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) to work with Landscape Architecture professors from around the world to create a Global Challenges University Alliance graduate summer school, which would be focused on issues related to sustainable development and climate change.

This week graduate students in Foundations of Capacity Building (CDE*6070) took the opportunity to visit the Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC) mobile global development exhibition entitled "TOGETHER" which was parked just outside the School. As a rapid "field trip" students examined the exhibit and its presentation on food security and sustainable rural development projects in Africa and Asia. The graduate students then participated in a collective learning exercise that identified and discussed knowledge sharing and learning tools used in the exhibit.

As a valuable member of the agriculture, food, and rural development community we like like to invite you to participate in an online survey. The purpose of the survey is to investigate how social media is being used in the agriculture, food, and rural development context. The survey will take no more than 30 minutes to complete. If you choose to participate you will be contributing to an important area of research with practical implications.

Here is the link to participate in the survey,

Prof. Al Lauzon has been named the interim director of the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD) effective November 1, 2015. 

Lauzon will assume interim director duties as Prof. Wayne Caldwell serves as interim dean of the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC).

Anissa McAlpine received the 2015 Gerald Carrothers Graduate Scholarship at the Ontario Professional Planners Institute AGM meeting on Wednesday, October 7, 2015 in Toronto. Anissa is a second year MSc student in Rural Planning and Development at the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, University of Guelph. Anissa's research at the graduate level focuses on farmland preservation in both the Ontario and British Columbia context.  She is also involved in research that is tracking Official Plan amendments as a means to measure current activity related to farmland loss.