This is a report summarizing key messages for municipalities as it relates to ignoring climate risks and the liability ramifications related to various legal avenues (e.g. common law, constitution). It is focused on flooding impacts on infrastructure management, development permitting, and land-use planning. This is a great resource and tool for municipalities to engage more in assessing and addressing climate risks.
“Canadian communities face challenges of declining infrastructure quality and diminishing health and resilience of many ecosystems, a challenge made far more pressing by climate change. To address this, leading local governments are starting to identify, value and account for natural assets in their financial planning and asset management programs as a means to develop deliver core services sustainably through a climate resilient green infrastructure. This four-week online course covers core concepts, the most recent case examples and latest approaches to municipal natural asset management. The course will provide both essential information to anyone working for, or with local governments or who is interested in innovative approaches to community sustainability. The course also offers an opportunity to discuss with peers and the instructor, potential approaches to challenges and opportunities in learners’ own communities.”
The “Top 10 Municipal Actions to Advance Nature-Based Climate Solutions” is a guide created by Nature Canada that identifies the ten most effective methods for integrating nature-based climate solutions into municipal plans and actions. This guide links to other resources and programs that support municipal uptake of nature-based climate solutions. This guide provides some key ideas for municipal actions and directs the reader towards funding programs, case-studies, and links to useful policy frameworks.
The Climate Change Adaptation Resource Pathway (ARP) for Natural and Nature-based Solutions is an interactive-PDF tool created by Natural Resources Canada in collaboration with the New Brunswick Environmental Network designed to help adaptation practitioners at all levels traverse the vast array of information available on natural and nature‑based climate change adaptation solutions. Peruse key terms, FAQs, training opportunities, networks, and a selection of key resources and tools.
This eye-catching resource designed by Royama Design presents three popular applications of natural and nature-based infrastructure along with their components, principles and case study pricing examples.
This is the printable version. If you are interested in the web version of the document, you can find it in the resource section of the website.
This eye-catching resource designed by Royama Design presents three popular applications of natural and nature-based infrastructure along with their components, principles and case study pricing examples.
If you are interested in printing the poster, you can find the printing file in the resource section of the website.
The TNFD framework seeks to provide recommendations and guidance on nature-related risks and opportunities relevant to a wide range of market participants, including investors, analysts, corporate executives and boards, regulators, stock exchanges and accounting firms.
The framework is being developed following the TNFD principles to be market usable, science-based, purpose driven, integrated and adaptive, globally inclusive, and embracing a full approach to nature-related risks and employing an integrated approach to climate- and nature-related risks.
The first beta version of the TNFD framework includes three core components:
As witnessed in recent weeks, rising seas, swollen atmospheric rivers and post-tropical storms are a threat to community infrastructure, housing and the safety of those living along Canada’s east and west coasts. In response, new guidance from the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, University of Waterloo, presents practical solutions to limit the financial and social costs of these evolving risks.
The new guidance, supported by the Standards Council of Canada, the National Research Council of Canada, and Infrastructure Canada, catalogues approaches falling under two types of coastal protection:
• Traditional Grey Infrastructure: Hard, engineered coastal protection measures, such as seawalls, dikes, and barriers; and
• Nature-Based Solutions: Measures that depend on, or mimic, natural systems to manage flood and erosion risk, such as saltmarsh restoration or replenishing beach and dune systems with sand.
Canadian communities and infrastructure are vulnerable to coastal and riverine flood hazards. The risks associated with coastal and river flooding are escalating as a result of development in river floodplains and coastal zones, and the effects of climate change on flood and erosion hazards. There is growing interest in the potential for Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to play a role in managing these risks, owing in part to Canada’s co-leadership of the Nature-based Solutions Action Track of the Global Commission on Adaptation. Despite this increasing interest in NbS for coastal and riverine flood and erosion risk management, they remain relatively underutilized in Canada. Standards and guidelines can contribute to mainstreaming NbS by clarifying the underlying concepts and principles, raising awareness, and educating practitioners, potential project proponents, and the public.
Over the past year, the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices has been modeling what climate change could mean for Canada. We have looked specifically at climate change impacts on health – including impacts from heat, ground-level ozone, and Lyme disease – and infrastructure system impacts.