Adapting to our Changing Climate: Community Planning

Municipalities and planning departments across Canada are tasked with developing our communities in a period where climate change is intensifying. The global water cycle is disrupted, bringing more intense rainfall and flooding to regions that must now re-assess future builds and mitigate the effects of climate change. 

For you, adapting to climate change and decision-making in planning may require a new framework. You need to translate the needs in housing, the community, and the environment into connections that answer questions such as:

• What mitigating actions can we take now to protect our community? 
• What are the long-term costs and benefits of taking action?
• How will climate change adaptation shape our community for future generations?

This webinar will walk through a conceptual planning scenario where occupied buildings are phased out of an at-risk area in a Canadian city and re-zoned and replaced with naturalized flood protection infrastructure. 

You will see how the costs associated with out-migration of these neighbourhoods and future growth targets are considered and quantified. Finally, you will see how a naturalized river edge is visualized as a new public greenspace that will not only provide a public amenity but also an ecological service to the city.