How will the water sector in Canada adapt to a changing climate?

Canadian water in a changing climate

3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Eastern

The water sector faces many challenges in integrating climate adaptation into long-term planning and decision-making. Deep uncertainty associated with climate change or complex socio-political realities constrains decision-making, causing paralysis and inaction. Existing planning approaches and resources lack the flexibility to adjust to emerging realities resulting from rapidly changing conditions or situations, such as rising sea levels, extreme events, and population growth, among other drivers.

Large water management projects, including upgrading or building new infrastructure, require substantive fiscal and societal commitment and generally lock-in approaches even if current realities change or shift. Incorporating adaptation in long-term master planning in the water sector may provide more flexibility as our climate changes.

For water management and large infrastructure delivery that are embedded within broader societal complexities, adaptation planning approaches, such as Adaptive Pathway Planning, may provide the framing needed to move forward in a measured and deliberate approach. Join us on this webinar to kick off a pan-Canadian project to learn more about the Adaptive Pathway Planning framework and how others, globally, have used it to address deep uncertainty in planning for and implementing large water management projects.

Speakers will include:

• Ryan Brotchie, strategic water planning lead, GHD (Canada)
• Greg Finlayson, manager, GHD (Australia)
• Sandra Cooke, Director of Communities and Climate at CWN