HAMILTON - The Dofasco Centre for Engineering and Public Policy at McMaster University and Seneca College’s King Global Restoration Lab and Centre (King Campus) have entered an intellectual partnership to foster the regeneration of Great Lakes communities and watershed.

The partnership will undertake research and curriculum development to educate students, practitioners and local governments about community revitalization and regeneration, in order to achieve sustainable, economic, social and environmental well being, starting with the Great Lakes region.

“This is about curriculum development and delivery towards regenerating sustainable natural and built environments,” said Gail Krantzberg, director, Dofasco Centre for Engineering and Public Policy. “It is about making cities sustainable as pressures associated with changing demographics and climate change require new thinking about what the urban fabric should be evolving towards.”

Partnership priorities include:

- Pairing engineers and scientists with technologists, technicians and the trades so that each sector understands the innovations and needs of the other;

- Developing a curriculum with subjects including green economy, community revitalization, urban regeneration, sustainability and urban design protocols;

- Providing specific training in many areas including: “Adaptive Re-Use Project Management”, site characterization, Great Lakes watershed analysis and restoration, and engineered solutions for built/natural environment enhancement from permeable pavement to bike paths;

- Constructing a design protocol to ensure that regeneration and revitalization is integrated throughout public or private sector corporations.

“We believe this initiative will fill a significant gap in too many projects which lack resilient communication between researchers, designers, constructors, maintainers, and retrofitters,” said Bill Humber, Director of the Office of Eco Seneca Initiatives at Seneca College. “At the same time we intend to actively pursue training of those at a municipal level wrestling with issues of regeneration in their community.”