About the Webinar
Parks in Action highlights the role of parks, open spaces, and the public realm in fostering climate action in Toronto. Urban green spaces range from expansive ravine networks to pocket gardens and from street rights-of-ways to schoolyards and green roofs. Regardless of their scale, they are valuable tools for urban climate change mitigation and adaptation. Toronto’s parks fulfill essential social and environmental prerogatives, including mitigating urban heat island effect, supporting biodiversity, and improving air quality. Similarly, they offer crucial water management goals and reduce the impact of extreme weather events. Well-designed parks also act as inclusive gathering places, fostering social interaction, health, and well-being. “Parks in Action” aims to demonstrate how climate action in the public realm is also generative of participatory design and social engagement—from the scale of small local installations “hubs” to “tower communities” along urban watersheds. Central to this work is the link between social equity and climate adaptation—ensuring that all communities, regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds, have equal access to green infrastructure and their benefits.
Thursday, March 27 at 2:00 ET
Note: This event will be held in English with French translation services provided.
About the Presenter:
Fadi Masoud is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Toronto and the Director of the Centre for Landscape Research. His research and teaching focus on the relationships between environmental systems, policy, and design. Masoud currently leads projects that position the landscape as a critical foundation for multi-scalar urban climate adaptation and resilience. Prior to joining the University of Toronto, Masoud held teaching and research appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Masoud is trained as a planner and landscape architect and is the recipient of several awards, including the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA) Research and Innovation Award, the Council of Landscape Architects (CELA) Teaching Excellence Award, the Heather M. Reisman Gold Medal in Design, the Jacob Weidenmann Prize, and was a Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) National Olmsted Scholar and a Fulbright Fellow. He is the editor of Terra-Sorta-Firma: Developing the Littoral Gradient (Actar 2020), an atlas of urbanism on reclaimed land. Masoud currently sits on Waterfront Toronto’s Design Review Panel and was a member of the City of Toronto’s Urban Flooding Working Group, which helped launch the city’s first Resilience Strategy.
This webinar is offered through landADAPT:
A new continuing education program to promote building capacity through professional development opportunities for Canadian landscape architects, supported by Natural Resources Canada’s Climate Change Adaptation Program.