International clout grows for climate change, water management training

The University of Calgary is celebrating its fifth year of the One Health Summer Institute (OHSI), which has now attracted and trained more than 100 people from around the world.

Since it started in 2021, participants have travelled from Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Germany, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Philippines, South Korea, South Sudan and the U.S.

The OHSI introduces students to the principles, application and importance of taking a One Health, transdisciplinary, holistic approach to address current and emerging issues related to climate change. The emphasis is on exploring the challenges and opportunities that exist to improve water security and sustainable health outcomes locally, regionally, nationally and globally.

“I learned so much — from technical skills like water sampling to applying One Health concepts within academic theory,” says OHSI participant Megan Lee, BA'24, a wildlife rehabilitator and UCalgary student taking a master's degree in environmental practice.

The course fuelled her love of learning and gave her the confidence she needed to thrive in the field, says Lee.

“It was an inspiring, affirming experience,” she adds.

For Nicole Phillips, a student at the University of Waterloo, the experience helped her solidify her career path in health research.

"OHSI is an amazing educational opportunity that brings interdisciplinary collaboration and learning together allowing participants to deepen their understanding of One Health through hands-on engagement," she explains.

Bow River and climate connections

During the past three years, instructors have used the Bow River watershed to highlight its societal and economic significance. The river also shows the interdependence of human, animal and environmental health.

Program participants get to meet with water users, managers, policymakers, and researchers along the Bow River — from its headwaters at Bow Lake in Banff National Park to the Blackfoot Crossing National Historic Site on the Siksika First Nation — and hear their stories.

By learning alongside the river and hearing the stories that live there, students experience how One Health fosters cooperation between researchers, policymakers and communities to address complex issues, such as climate-change, urban expansion, sustainable land use and agriculture, wastewater contamination, pollution, and multiple knowledge systems.

By design, the institute involves UCalgary instructors from across different faculties and fields of study. It also includes contributors from other universities and organizations. 

Those contributors include knowledge keepers from Indigenous communities, and experts in fields that range from epidemiology and ecology, to engineering and veterinary medicine.

“The One Health Summer Institute was a truly enriching experience,” says Elizabeth Ramírez Zamorano, a PhD candidate in civil engineering at the University of Chile, who attended the institute this summer. 

“It helped me understand the importance of having an integrative perspective, as proposed by the One Health approach, which connects human, animal and environmental health in water management.”

Cross-faculty volunteers key to success

The success of OHSI was possible thanks to volunteers from many academic and private sector organizations, say course co-ordinators Dr. Michele Anholt, PhD'13 (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine); Dr. Kerry Black, PhD (Schulich School of Engineering, Civil Engineering); Dr. Kelly Munkittrick, PhD (Faculty of Science); and Dr. Fred Wrona, BSc'77, PhD'82 (also Science).

“We are also grateful for receiving the teachings and knowledge that was shared with participants over the years from Elders and knowledge holders from the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, the Piikani First Nation and Siksika First Nation at Blackfoot Crossing,” the co-ordinators say in a group statement.

The program is funded by the Office of the Vice-President (Research) and the One Health initiative at UCalgary, along with the United Nations University Hub on Water and Climate, the Svare Research Chair endowment, and the UNESCO chair in mountain water sustainability. It recognizes that human, animal, plant and ecosystem health are linked and interdependent. 

The program prepares the next generation of researchers and leaders to advance innovations and solutions to water and health security issues. 

Plans are in the works to offer a complementary international course in 2026 through collaborations with colleagues in Chile.