Climate change will have a significant impact on the maintenance and design of infrastructure in our cities.
Photo: ©istockphoto.com/Cheng Chang

Clyde River is a windy Inuit hamlet, surrounded by majestic fiords, on the northeastern shore of Baffin Island, about 450 km north of the Arctic Circle. Half of its 850 residents are under the age of 18. The community has two stores, one school and one church, rounded out by a hotel, health centre, community centre and arena. Its inhabitants have always led quiet traditional lives. They are now at the forefront of an innovative climate-change-adaptation project that will produce lessons transferable to other vulnerable communities in the North and elsewhere.

In 2007, Natural Resources Canada joined efforts with the Government of Nunavut and the Canadian Institute of Planners to develop a community adaptation plan to reduce vulnerabilities and build in resilience to climate change at the local level in the Arctic. The citizens of Clyde River successfully lobbied to be front and centre in the pilot project.

The elders had been documenting changes in prevailing weather conditions in their area for the previous seven years. Igloos hadn’t lasted through the winter for decades. And as the glaciers retreated and the sea ice became unpredictable, streams were drying up and the wind was picking up. Indeed, scientists have shown that the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world. In Clyde River, they knew it was time for action.

Dr. Donald Lemmen, research manager with Natural Resources Canada’s Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Division, says it is urgent that Canadians begin designing resilient systems to accommodate the changing climate. “This is an issue for today, not tomorrow,” he says. “And it’s an issue for all of Canada, not just the North. Everyone has a role in adaptation: community organizations, NGOs, individuals, etc. We have to get people to take ownership of this issue.”

While most people are familiar with mitigation, which is reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, they are not always aware of adaptation. The principle of adaptation accepts that climate changes are already happening, and that further change is unavoidable, but it is possible to reduce the negative consequences.  “In the Arctic,” says McGill University geographer James Ford, who has spent four years conducting vulnerability studies with Inuit communities, “there are few opportunities to influence greenhouse gas emissions, so adaptation offers a tangible way in which the impacts of climate change can be reduced.”

The first step in Clyde River was to pinpoint current and future vulnerabilities. Natural Resources Canada’s scientists assessed risks to the potable freshwater supply and hazards from coastal erosion and permafrost degradation; they mapped vegetation changes over time using satellite imagery; and they examined the impact of relative sea-level changes on the hamlet. The second phase, scheduled for completion in 2011, is to develop and implement programs that address the identified issues. Elders and other members of a community-based advisory committee have been working alongside researchers, planners and engineers throughout the process, sharing their traditional knowledge, observations and experiences. Within the first year, a permafrost-monitoring network had been established with data-gathering sites in six Baffin region communities.

In November 2009, Natural Resources Canada announced two projects with planners and engineers worth $2.49 million, part of a four-year, $35-million adaptation program. The first, led by Engineers Canada, will build expertise and knowledge about the effects of the changing climate on infrastructure, helping owners and operators plan for climate change in the design and maintenance of buildings and structures such as roads, bridges and sewers. In the second, the Canadian Institute of Planners will develop and deliver adaptation tools, resources and training to enhance its profession’s ability to apply climate change information to its work. “There will be more coming,” says Dr. Lemmen. “We’re trying to provide decision-support tools customized to different sectors of our economy.”

The Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation program promotes the importance of regional approaches to adaptation. It has published an exhaustive assessment of current and future risks and opportunities that climate change presents for six regions: British Columbia, the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada and Northern Canada.

The report, entitled From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 2007, shows that the economic cost of extreme weather events in Canada from 1996 to 2006 was more than that of all previous years together. The so-called Ice Storm of the Century in January 1998, for example, which kept large swaths of Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada covered in a thick layer of ice for five days, claimed 28 lives, caused 945 injuries, downed millions of trees and thousands of utility poles, and tallied a staggering $5.4 billion in damages. The Saguenay flood of 1996 takes second place with a price tag of $1.7 billion in estimated direct costs.

Six of the 10 largest disasters in Canadian history have been droughts, the authors point out. The nationwide drought of 2001-02, for example, resulted in 41,000 jobs lost and a drop of nearly $6 billion in the country’s gross domestic product. The most sensitive sectors to extreme weather are industries dependant on renewable natural resources — agriculture, fisheries and forestry, for example — and tourism and recreation.

Looking to the future, the report concludes that in the North, changes in permafrost, sea ice, lake ice and snow cover could have significant implications for the design and maintenance of infrastructure. There could also be shifts in the distribution of some animal species with consequences for biodiversity and the hunters who rely on these resources. Increased navigation in Arctic waters may bring opportunities for economic growth, but also challenges to the environment, culture and security.

In Atlantic Canada, storms could be more frequent and more intense, and shoreline erosion and flooding could affect the infrastructure and industries of coastal communities. Studies show that vulnerable areas include the north shore of Prince Edward Island, the Gulf coast of New Brunswick, the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, and parts of the cities of Charlottetown and Saint John. Careful planning and limiting exposure to rises in sea levels would reduce vulnerability, the report says.