Profile

Dr Sarah Burch is a Visiting Research Associate at the Environmental Change Institute, where she is focusing on the human dimensions of climate change. Specifically, Sarah's work pertains to:

• Institutional and behavioural barriers to climate change policy in cities;
• Synergies and tradeoffs between climate change adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development;
• Partnerships between the public and private sectors in response to climate change.

Sarah holds a PhD in Resource Management and Environmental Studies from the University of British Columbia, Canada (2009), a BA in International Relations (University of Calgary, 2004) and a BSc(Hons) in Environmental Science (University of Calgary, 2004). She was awarded Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council fellowships for her doctoral and postdoctoral work. She was a Contributing Author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in both Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability) and Working Group III (Mitigation of Climate Change).

While at the University of British Columbia, Sarah was a core team member of the Local Climate Change Visioning Project, led by Stephen Sheppard at the Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning, and the Adaptation, Mitigation and Sustainable Development research initiative led by John Robinson. She is also a member of the Climate Smart team, a Vancouver-based social enterprise that trains small- and medium-sized businesses to manage greenhouse gas emissions.

Sarah teaches on various dimensions of sustainable development paths and climate change governance, and works to build climate change literacy amongst decision-makers in the public and private sectors.

Research Interests:

Common themes have emerged that pervade and unite Sarah's research interests. In particular, Sarah seeks to find synergies and linkages between previously isolated approaches to complex problems such as climate change. She employs inter-disciplinary theory to explore solutions that are at once transformative and incremental, global and local.

Currently, Sarah investigates the complex web of intervening factors that influence the utilization of capacity in response to climate change using comparative policy analysis and institutional theory, paired with recent research into the concepts of capacity and path dependency. Newer research directions include: an examination of unique partnerships between the public and private sector that may serve to transform regional development paths and mitigate climate change; the integration of climate change into biodiversity policy; and the use of green infrastructure to achieve both adaptation and mitigation.

Selected Publications:

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• Sheppard, S.R.J., Shaw, A., Flanders, D. Burch, S., Wiek, A., Carmichael, J., Robinson, J.B. and Cohen, S. 2011. Future visioning of local climate change: A framework for community engagement and planning with scenarios and visualization. Futures 43: 400-412.
• Robinson, R., Burch, S., O’Shea, M., Talwar, S. and Walsh, M. 2011. Envisioning sustainability pathways: Recent progress in the use of participatory backcasting approaches for sustainability research. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 78: 756-768.
• Burch, S., Sheppard, S.R.J., Shaw, A. and Flanders, D. (2010) Planning for climate change in a flood-prone community: Municipal barriers to policy action and the use of visualizations as decision support tools. Journal of Flood Risk Management, 3(2): 126-139.
• Burch, S. (2010) Transforming barriers into enablers of action on climate change: insights from three municipal case studies in British Columbia, Canada. Global Environmental Change, 20: 287-197.
• Burch, S. (2009) Development paths: investigating the context of responses to global climate change. Sustainable Development.
• Burch, S. (2009) In pursuit of resilient, low carbon communities: an examination of barriers to action in three Canadian cities. Energy Policy.
• Shaw, A., Sheppard, S., Burch, S., Flanders, D., Wiek, A., Carmichael, J., Robinson, J. and Cohen, S. (2009) Making local futures tangible: synthesizing, downscaling, and visualizing climate change scenarios for participatory capacity building. Global Environmental Change, 19(4): 447-463.
• Dusyk, N., Burch, S., Robinson, J., Berkhout, T. and Coleman, S. (2009) Transformative energy efficiency and conservation: a sustainable development path approach in British Columbia, Canada. Energy Efficiency, 2(4): 387-400.
• Burch, S. and Robinson, J. (2007) A framework for explaining the links between capacity and action in response to climate change. Climate Policy, 7(4): 304-316.
• Winker, H., Baumert, K., Blanchard, O., Burch, S. and Robinson, J. (2007) What factors influence mitigative capacity? Energy Policy, 35(1): 692-703.

Book Chapters

• Bizikova, L., Burch, S., Robinson, J. and Cohen, S. (2010) A participatory integrated assessment approach to local climate change responses: linking climate change adaptation and mitigation with sustainable development. In, O'Brien, K., St. Clair, A.L. and B. Kristoffersen (eds.) Shifting the Discourse: Climate Change as an Issue of Human Security.
• Burch, S., Shaw, A., Sheppard, S.R.J. and Flanders, D. (2009) Climate change visualization: using 3D imagery of local places to build capacity and inform policy. In, Neset, T., Johansson, J. and B.-O. Linnér (eds.) State of Climate Change Visualization, CSPR Report No. 09:04, Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, Norrköping, Sweden. Linköping University Electronic Press.
• Klein, R., Huq, S., Toth, F., Downing, T., Denton, F., Richels, R. and Robinson, J. (2007) Inter-relationships between adaptation and mitigation. In, The Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC Working Group II, Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Role: Contributing Author.
• Sathaye, J., Najam, A., Cocklin, C., Heller, T., Lecoque, F., Llanes, J., Pan, J., Rayner, S., Robinson, J., Schaeffer, R., Sokona, Y., Swart, R. and Winkler, H. (2007) Sustainable development and mitigation. In, The Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC Working Group III, Mitigation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Role: Contributing Author.

Forthcoming

• Burch, S., Sheppard, S.R.J., Shaw, A. and Flanders, D. (in press) Planning for climate change in a flood prone community: Municipal barriers to policy action and the use of visualizations as decision support tools. In, Fenech, A., McIver, D. and N. Comer (eds.) Planned Adaptation to Climate Change. Ottawa: Environment Canada.
• Walsh, M. and Burch, S. (accepted) Communities at the crossroads: using MetroQuest to help communities create a consensus around the future. In, Future Cities and Regions: Simulation, Scenarios and Visioning, Governance and Scales. New York, Heidelberg: Springer.
• Bizikova, L., Burch, S., Robinson, J., Shaw, A., and Sheppard, S. (accepted) Adaptation, climate change, and uncertainty. In, Gramelsberger, G. and J. Feichter (eds.) Dealing with Uncertainty: Insights into the Calculability of Climate Change and its Influence on Society.
• Burch, S., Shaw, A., Sheppard, S.R.J., Flanders, D. and Cohen, S. (submitted) Exploring climate change with expert and lay communities: The influence of visualizations on affect, cognition, and behavioural intent.
• Krupa, J. and Burch, S. (accepted pending revisions) A new energy future for South Africa: the political ecology of South African renewable energy.
• Burch, S. and Schroeder, H. (submitted) Harnessing the power of the invisible majority: the emerging role of small- and medium-sized businesses in urban greenhouse gas management.
• Cohen, S., Sheppard, S.R.J., Burch, S., Shaw, A. and Flanders, D. (submitted) Public responses to local climate change visioning mountain snow packs and future community development in the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
• Bizikova, L., Burch, S. and Robinson, J. (submitted) Exploring linkages between climate change and sustainable development in the place-based context.

Reports / Other

• Robinson, J., Berkhout, T., Burch, S., Davis, E.J., Dusyk, N., Shaw, A., Sheppard, S. and Tansey, J. (2008) Infrastructure and Communities: The Path to Sustainable Communities. A White Paper prepared for the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions.

Projects

Multi-sector Networks and Entrepreneurship project. Principal Investigators: Dr. Sarah Burch, Dr. Heike Schroeder, Prof. Steve Rayner. Funded by the Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities at the University of Oxford’s Institute for Science, Innovation, and Society.