Thesis Defence: Imagining Collective Human-Beaver Wetlands Through Speculative Design to Address Future Climate Predictions in Okanagan

Amir Rahsaz, supervised by Dr. Aleksandra Dulic and Dr. Qian Chen, will defend their thesis titled “Imagining Collective Human-Beaver Wetlands Through Speculative Design to Address Future Climate Predictions in Okanagan: The Case of Beaver World” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies – Sustainability theme.

An abstract for Amir Rahsaz’s thesis is included below.

Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. Registration is not required for in-person defences.

Abstract

This thesis examines how speculative design can support new ways of imagining human–beaver wetland coexistence in the Okanagan Valley in response to climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, and extreme climate events. The research begins from the recognition that wetlands, once central to the ecological structure of the Okanagan, have been severely reduced through settlement, drainage, agriculture, urbanization, and other forms of human land control. It argues that restoring wetland function requires not only ecological and technical strategies, but also a transformation in how wet, dynamic, and visually “messy” landscapes are perceived and valued.

Beavers are positioned in this thesis as more-than-human agents and ecosystem engineers whose activities can support wetland formation, water retention, biodiversity, habitat connectivity, and climate adaptation. However, beaver-engineered landscapes often conflict with dominant cultural and aesthetic expectations of order, neatness, and control. To address this tension, the thesis brings together ecological research, sustainability-based landscape aesthetics, speculative design, and serious game development. It explores how beaver wetlands can be reinterpreted not as marginal or problematic spaces, but as climate-adaptive landscapes capable of supporting multispecies coexistence.

The research unfolds through an interdisciplinary, practice-based framework. It first examines the ecological potential and integration barriers of beaver wetlands in the Okanagan. It then considers how sustainability-based aesthetics can help reframe their perceived disorder as meaningful ecological function. Building on this foundation, the thesis develops speculative design scenarios for human–beaver wetland landscapes across different Okanagan conditions. These ideas are then translated into Beaver World, a place-based 3D serious game designed to communicate ecological relationships, wetland transformation, biodiversity, climate disturbance, and more-than-human agency through interactive play.

Through visual research, speculative landscape design, narrative, role-playing, and game-based environmental learning, the thesis demonstrates how design can make complex ecological processes more accessible and experiential. Ultimately, this research contributes to climate-adaptive landscape thinking by showing how speculative design and serious games can help bridge the gap between current unsustainable land-use patterns and more collective, resilient, and multispecies wetland futures in the Okanagan Valley.