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New UBC Okanagan research shows wildfire can change how much water remains in streams during the driest months of the year.

Wildfires don’t just burn forests. They can also change how much water is left in creeks and rivers in summer, when water is scarce and demand is high, according to new research led by UBC Okanagan. 

Published in Forest Ecosystems, the study looks at stream flows between July and September—after spring snowmelt and before fall rains.

These flows matter because they determine how much water is available for drinking, irrigation, fish habitat and emergency response during heat waves and drought.

“This is the kind of study that helps move us from ‘wildfire changes flow’ to ‘here’s why, when and through which pathways,’” says Shixuan Lyu, lead author and a doctoral student with UBC Okanagan’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

“In water management, mechanisms matter because they affect what you can plan for and how long changes might last.”

They used a combination of long-term stream measurements and chemical “fingerprints” that revealed where the water originated. Researchers found that burned watersheds in the Okanagan Valley had more water flowing later into the summer than unburned watersheds, but with considerable variations.

At first glance, that might sound like a benefit. But the researchers say the apparent boost comes with important caveats.

“Low flows are the pinch point for communities, agriculture and fish habitat,” said Dr. Adam Wei, senior author and a hydrologist with UBC Okanagan. “Understanding how wildfire reshapes the seasonal balance between snowmelt, groundwater and water loss to the atmosphere is key to building realistic watershed strategies in a warming climate.

“It’s also important to understand that every watershed is unique, with different water responses to wildfires, so management strategies must be tailored to local watersheds.”

After wildfire, fewer trees mean less water is pulled back into the atmosphere, and more snowmelt reaches streams and underground storage earlier in the year. That can temporarily increase summer low flows; however, as forests recover, water losses are expected to rise again. In some cases, they may exceed pre-fire levels.

The findings suggest wildfire can briefly reshape water availability during the dry summer, but they also underscore the need for long-term monitoring and careful planning as extreme weather, wildfire and water demand increasingly intersect.

“This isn’t a new source of water,” said Lyu. “It’s a shift in timing and pathways, and those shifts don’t last forever.”  

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A new UBC Okanagan-led study examines how cold regions can balance electricity costs and emissions as electric vehicle use increases.

Electrifying cars and trucks can cut greenhouse gas emissions, but in cold regions the climate benefits hinge on what powers the grid.  

A new study led by UBC Okanagan doctoral student Sandali Walgama proposes a decision-making framework to help policymakers plan the best electricity generation mix for growing electric vehicle charging needs, using Alaska as a real-world test case.

Published in Energy Conversion and Management, the research models how Alaska could meet rising electric vehicle power demand using existing energy sources—including natural gas, coal, hydro, wind and solar—and compares options that prioritize lowest cost, lowest emissions or a balanced approach.   

“EVs are often framed as a simple swap, gas to electric,” says Walgama, the study’s corresponding author. “In reality, cold regions face constraints that make planning the power mix just as important as deploying chargers. Our framework is designed to make those trade-offs explicit so decision-makers can be better informed.”  

Key findings of the research include: 

• The least-cost options leaned heavily on coal and natural gas. 
• The lowest-emissions options relied more on hydropower, wind and solar, but were limited by capacity and winter performance constraints 
• A balanced strategy reduced emissions by 15 per cent compared with the least-cost option, and cost 22 per cent less than the lowest-emissions scenario.   

The framework pairs two tools: one that shows the best cost-emissions trade-offs, and another to help decision-makers pick the option that fits their priorities: cost, emissions or a balance of both. 

The study also flags that electric vehicle charging demand and natural gas prices strongly influence what the “best” mix looks like, suggesting planners should stress-test strategies against a range of adoption and fuel-price scenarios.   

“This planning tool can help decision-makers extensively prioritize lifecycle-based solutions,” says co-author Dr. Kasun Hewage, Professor with UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering. “It helps jurisdictions identify solutions, which are environmentally, socially and economically viable and remain sensible—even as demand forecasts and energy prices shift.”  

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Clare Wiznura’s master’s thesis concentrated on identifying anger in online environments, analyzing how people express frustration, hostility and outrage.

Anger online often feels sharper, louder and more explosive than it does face to face.

New research from a UBC Okanagan alumna suggests that difference is not accidental—it’s shaped by context, distance and the design of online spaces themselves.

Clare Wiznura focused her interdisciplinary studies master’s thesis on identifying anger in online environments, analyzing how people express frustration, hostility and outrage across social media and survey-based interactions.

“One of the biggest differences we saw was how controlled people were when they believed they were speaking directly to someone,” Wiznura says. “Even when participants were clearly upset, they were more measured. They asked questions. They avoided using all capital letters and insults. That restraint largely disappeared in more general online spaces.”

The research examined both general online commentary and direct, interpersonal communication to understand how language changes depending on who is being addressed—and how.

Wiznura’s research found that general social media comment sections were far more likely to contain what researchers describe as “hot” anger—language that is loud, aggressive and emotionally charged. In contrast, interpersonal exchanges showed greater emotional regulation, even when disagreement or frustration was present.

“This aligns with something we intuitively know,” Wiznura says. “Online, there’s often a decreased sense of social presence. People feel more comfortable being mean in ways they likely wouldn’t be in person, even though we know these are still real people on the other side.”

A key takeaway from the research was the importance of context. More than half of survey participants said they could not confidently interpret whether language was angry or hostile without knowing what it was responding to, or what relationship existed between speakers.

“The same words could be interpreted very differently depending on the situation,” says Wiznura. “People repeatedly said, ‘If this was the context, then, yes, it’s angry. If it’s another context, maybe not.’ That makes emotional language much harder to categorize than we often assume.”

The research also examined rage bait—content intentionally designed to provoke outrage and drive engagement. Wiznura notes that rage bait does not require the original poster to be angry themselves.

“Rage bait has become a significant factor in how anger circulates online,” says Dr. Christine Schreyer, Professor of Anthropology and Wiznura’s supervisor. “People may not be angry themselves, but they are deliberately provoking anger in others. Clare’s research highlights how important it is to account for that dynamic when studying language and emotion in digital spaces.”

The research arrives amid growing public conversation about online outrage and engagement-driven platforms.

Oxford University Press named “rage bait” its Word of the Year for 2025, reflecting how widely the concept has entered everyday language. For Dr. Schreyer, the label is useful but the behaviour behind it has been visible for longer.

“Words of the Year reflect an emphasis in society, something that represents a snapshot in time. The fact that rage bait is Oxford’s 2025 Word of the Year indicates the cultural significance of online discourse in contemporary society,” says Dr. Schreyer.

Wiznura is careful not to overextend the findings, particularly when asked to draw broad conclusions about society.

“It’s very easy to feel connected through social media, but that connection is fundamentally different from in-person relationships,” says Wiznura. “There’s real value in what we sometimes call ‘third spaces’—libraries, community centres, places where people gather without a screen in between.

“We’ve known for a while that online spaces impact how we communicate. Understanding how anger works in those environments is a necessary step toward engaging with each other more thoughtfully.”

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A scenic view of vineyards overlooking Okanagan Lake, reflecting how wineries often use landscape imagery to convey a sense of place, heritage and authenticity.

A new UBC Okanagan study reveals that Okanagan wineries lean heavily on curated visual storytelling to build a sense of place, history and authenticity—and the strategy is nearly universal across the region. 

The research was led by Danielle Gallina, who conceptualized and conducted the study while she was an undergraduate geography student at UBC Okanagan, under the supervision of Dr. Jonathan Cinnamon.  

The study examined 141 images drawn from the websites of 16 Okanagan wineries. 

Gallina says these choices are not accidental. 

“The Okanagan wine industry uses imagery to tie taste to place,” she explains. “These visuals don’t just sell wine—they help construct a shared idea of what the Okanagan is supposed to look and feel like.” 

Using a two-stage visual analysis, Gallina coded each image for elements linked to temporal themes—past, present and future—and geographic markers, including natural and built environments. 

The goal was to understand how wineries construct brand identity through visuals.  

Dr. Cinnamon, who teaches in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, says the analysis shows wineries consistently deploy imagery that blends landscape, heritage and family narratives. 

According to the study, 79 per cent of all images depicted the natural landscape, including vineyards, mountains and Okanagan Lake. Another 74 per cent showed the built environment, such as tasting rooms or winery signage, often presented alongside sweeping views of the valley. 

The research identified two dominant themes shaping this construction: 

1. A collective regional reputation built on place and heritage. Historical photographs, black-and-white images and depictions of pioneers or early agricultural work signal a long-standing connection between people and land, even in a relatively young wine region. 
2. An “authentic” brand identities created through family and intergenerational storytelling. Many wineries used images referencing multiple generations, suggesting deep roots and continuity across time. This approach, the authors note, is a common strategy among New World wineries seeking to evoke Old World tradition. 

Dr. Cinnamon says these strategies tap into powerful consumer expectations. 

“Wine has always been tied to ideas of place and time,” he says. “Even relatively young regions can create a sense of authenticity by drawing on intergenerational narratives or by linking their wines to iconic local landscapes. These images are doing cultural work.” 

The study also highlights how website imagery has become central to winery branding. In a digital marketplace where consumers may never visit in person, visual storytelling plays a key role in shaping experience and driving sales. 

With more than 222 wineries operating in the Okanagan Valley, the authors note the sample is small but strikingly consistent: all 16 wineries examined used place- and time-based imagery to craft their identity. 

Dr. Cinnamon says the findings raise broader questions. 

“Understanding how the region represents itself visually can help us think about tourism, land use, heritage and economic development,” he says. “Branding is never just branding. It shapes how communities see themselves and how others see them.” 

The study, Place, temporality, and wine identity: a visual analysis of winery website imagery in the Okanagan Valley wine region, appears in GeoJournal. 

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Dr. Magali Nehemy speaks to Cacique Domingos Mundurukú, local elder from Aldeia Bragança, Pará, in the Amazon during a research trip to study how the forest recycles rainfall.

An international research team has found that during the Amazon’s dry season, forests rely heavily on recent rainfall stored in shallow soil to keep the region’s climate in balance. 

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the UBC Okanagan-led study found that most of the water used by trees in eastern Amazon forests during the dry season comes from the top 50 centimetres of soil—water that fell only weeks or months earlier. 

“The Amazon forest produces its own rain by quickly returning water to the atmosphere via transpiration and producing its own rainfall when it needs it the most, during the dry season,” says Dr. Magali Nehemy, Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at UBCO.  

“Transpiration—water that is returned to the atmosphere by plants—is the largest flux on land. Changing forests changes this process, which in turn impacts rainfall, water availability and the ecosystems that depend on it.” 

In the Amazon dry season, up to 70 per cent of rainfall can come from this recycled moisture.  

Working in Brazil’s Tapajós National Forest during the peak of the dry season, Dr. Nehemy’s team collected data across two sites: a hilltop forest with a deep water table and a valley forest near a stream where groundwater is shallower.  

“The results were surprising,” says Dr. Nehemy. “Most of the water used for transpiration in the dry season did not come from deep reserves but from shallow soil. In a year without extreme drought or floods, nearly 70 per cent of transpiration on the hill and nearly half in the valley came from the top 50 centimetres of soil.”  

The study also shows that a tree’s embolism resistance, or how well it moves water through its tissues under drought conditions, explains why some species can keep using this recently fallen rain while others must rely on deeper stores.  

“It means the diversity of species and their drought resistance are directly tied to how the forest stabilizes its own climate,” says Dr. Nehemy. 

For her, the work is not only about physics and roots, but also about people. The field sites sit within the traditional territory of the Munduruku people. Many of the most protected forests left in the Amazon are in Indigenous territories.  

The findings have direct implications for climate models and policy.  

By linking tree traits, shallow soil water use and dry-season rainfall, the study offers a more mechanistic way to represent Amazon forests in land-surface and climate models, including those used to assess tipping points and water security under continued deforestation and warming.  

“In the long term, I would like us to be able to predict how changing vegetation cover shapes water availability via rainfall and climate vulnerability across different areas,” says Dr. Nehemy.  

“The Amazon really is a rain-making engine. If we weaken the forest’s ability to recycle water, we risk weakening the entire hydrological cycle that supports people, ecosystems and agriculture far beyond the forest itself.” 

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People sit on an Okanagan Lake beach viewing a distant wildfire.

How wildfires spread is more variable and unpredictable than Canada’s standard models assume, new research from UBC Okanagan data scientists shows. 

Ladan Tazik, lead author of a new study in Fire and UBC Okanagan doctoral student, used advanced computer vision tools to capture fire behaviour with a level of detail that wasn’t possible even a few years ago.  

Her work sheds light on the random elements of fire movement—information that could reshape how fire behaviour is modelled and forecasted in an era of worsening wildfire seasons. 

“Image processing techniques let us quantify fire behaviour in real time, including the parts that don’t follow consistent patterns,” says Tazik. “By capturing the randomness in how fires spread, we can build models that better reflect reality and help improve decision-making during active fire events.” 

Tazik led the design, analysis and modelling that form the backbone of the study.  

She used the “Segment Anything Model”, a state-of-the-art AI tool, to extract fire perimeters from experimental burn videos frame by frame to study fire spread dynamics.  

This allowed her to study directional fire spread on sloped terrain without assuming the fire behaves predictably or spreads in a simple line. 

Her analysis confirmed something firefighters may know instinctively: fires race uphill. But when she compared her measurements with the values used in Canada’s official Fire Behaviour Prediction System, the numbers didn’t always line up.  

Real fires often moved faster, and the influence of slope wasn’t consistent from place to place. 

She tested the method on ponderosa pine and Douglas fir fuels often used in fire research. 

This highlights that small differences in fuel, wind and terrain can add to the unpredictability of fire and introduce important variations in how it spreads.  

Even under nearly identical conditions, the flames didn’t behave the same way twice. 

In practical terms, that means most fire spread is shaped by randomness—far more than today’s deterministic models capture. 

“These results show that we need to pair every spread estimate with a measure of uncertainty,” Tazik explains. “Simply multiplying by a slope factor isn’t enough. Fire is dynamic, and our models should acknowledge that.” 

Research supervisor Dr. W. John Braun says the project demonstrates how emerging computer vision tools can transform wildfire science.  

“Tazik proposed innovative ways to tackle this difficult modelling problem,” he says. “Her work shows how high-resolution perimeter data and advanced modelling can help us understand the real variability in fire behaviour. That’s essential if we want to move toward more probabilistic, data-driven prediction systems.” 

The study also included contributions from Dr. John R.J. Thompson, Assistant Professor of Data Science, Mathematics and Statistics, as well as other partners who provided the experimental and field video datasets.  

While the fuel experiments supported the research, Tazik alone led the segmentation and modelling components. 

Tazik says the next step is to expand the approach to more fuel types and fire conditions and use airborne or satellite imagery to study fire spread dynamics.  

With more Earth observation and remote sensing tools available, she sees an opportunity to build models that better capture wildfire dynamics while embracing the inherent uncertainty of fire, rather than smoothing it away. 

“Fires don’t behave perfectly,” she says. “Our tools shouldn’t pretend they do.” 

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A newly installed nsyilxcn street sign on UBC Okanagan’s campus features a QR code that links to student-created audio recordings, helping the broader campus community learn the pronunciation and meaning of Syilx place names.

UBC Okanagan is deepening its commitment to Indigenous language revitalization by adding voices to on-campus nsyilxcn street signs in Kelowna.  

New QR codes attached to the signposts link to an online pronunciation guide featuring audio recordings created by students in the Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency program. 

“The nsyilxcn language is beautiful and descriptive, which the Syilx people recognize as being generated and given to the people directly from the land,” master’s student Ashley Gregoire writes in a blog post about the project. 

“The audio for these signs is equally important, as it provides the opportunity for people to learn proper pronunciation of each word while familiarizing themselves with the sounds of the nsyilxcn language, which is, ultimately, the sounds of this beautiful land.” 

The initiative builds on UBCO’s long-standing partnership with the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) and the En’owkin Centre to honour the Syilx Okanagan Nation and promote everyday use of the Nsyilxcn language. 

“Language illustrates a connection between people and a place,” says Dr. Christine Schreyer, Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies.  

“By hearing nsyilxcn spoken aloud, everyone on campus can experience the sounds of the language while learning the meaning behind these words. The recordings are a connection to the Syilx Okanagan Nation, the people and the land.” 

Since 2010, UBCO has displayed nsyilxcn translations alongside English names on its campus street signs—the first initiative of its kind in the region.  

The project was expanded in 2022 with newly designed signage in partnership with the ONA and En’owkin Centre, featuring a distinctive blue-green colour inspired by Kalamalka Lake and the ONA’s bear-and-salmon logo. 

Now, the addition of QR codes lets students, faculty, staff and visitors scan each sign with their phones to hear the nsyilxcn pronunciation.  

The recordings were developed by Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency students as part of an Endangered Language Documentation and Revitalization course, taught by Dr. Schreyer.  

The interactive feature supports UBCO’s truth and reconciliation commitments and its goal to make the Syilx language visible and audible across campus.  

Visitors can explore the 11 sign locations through a downloadable map at ok.ubc.ca/about/indigenous-engagement/nsyilxcn-street-signs. 

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A study co-authored by UBC Okanagan Associate Professor Dr. Mahmudur Fatmi and doctoral student Bijoy Saha uses Okanagan travel-diary data to model destination choices across full bike “tours.”

Cyclists often stay close to home, take shorter routes when making multiple stops and favour areas with connected bike lanes and nearby amenities, according to new research from UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering.   

The study, co-authored by Dr. Mahmudur Fatmi, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, and doctoral student Bijoy Saha, appears in the Journal of Transport Geography and uses Okanagan travel-diary data to model destination choices across full bike “tours”—or chained trips that start and end at home.  

“Planners often know popular routes. We’re showing where people stop and how that changes as a day gets more complex,” says Saha. “If you want people to link a café, park and store by bike, connect those areas with safe infrastructure and more destinations within reach.” 

Much of the existing research focuses on single trips. Saha’s model accounts for how cyclists plan their days, which can include things like a coffee on the way to work, groceries on the way back, and limits like time, terrain and stamina.   

First, the model filters destinations that are too far or demanding for a cyclist to reach. Then it uses a statistical approach to understand why riders choose different places and what attracts them to certain destinations.  

The study found that cyclists usually choose nearby destinations, travel farther on simple one-stop tours, and take shorter routes when they have more stops.   

“Cyclists often make multiple stops before reaching their destinations, such as picking up coffee or stopping for groceries,” Saha says. “This makes it necessary to recognize this ‘spatio-temporal’ dependency of travel and plan routes that connect them. Our model captures that reality.”   

Built-environment factors such as the number of nearby activities and the ratio of bike lanes to road length increase the odds a rider will choose an area.    

The model was trained on data from the 2018 Okanagan Travel Survey, a region-wide 24-hour diary of trips across Kelowna, West Kelowna, Vernon, Peachland and Lake Country.    

Saha, who conducts his research in UBCO’s integrated Transportation Research lab, says the goal is practical: help cities place bike lanes, end-of-trip parking and services where cyclists are likely to go.  

The work comes as BC continues to support active transportation networks with provincial grants and new funding adding up to roughly $135 million in capital support since 2023.    

Some policy takeaways from the study include:  

• Add destinations near homes and employment areas; density draws riders.   

• Connect clusters with continuous bike lanes; a higher bike-lane-to-road ratio boosts attractiveness.   

• Expect telecommuters to bike farther for recreation and errands; plan secure parking at parks, cafés and community hubs.

Dr. Fatmi says the study strengthens a part of transportation planning that has often been overlooked.   

“Most demand models are still centred on vehicles, which means they don’t always reflect how cyclists make decisions,” he says. “By improving how we model cyclists’ destination choices, planners get more realistic and accurate inputs. That allows cities to target the right connections, invest more equitably across neighbourhoods and support genuine shifts toward active travel.  

“This work is also feeding into our larger effort to build a full model that evaluates both vehicle and non-vehicle travel, and how each affects traffic and the environment.”  

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