Abstracts

Communicating Climate Change Adaptation to Municipalities

Bano Mehdi
C-CIARN Water Resources
bano.mehdi@mcgill.ca

Among the anticipated impacts of climate change are increases in the frequency and severity of damaging weather events. Although municipal governments engage in planning to accommodate a wide range of climate conditions, the occurrence of damaging events within the context of a rapidly changing climate can cause critical thresholds to be exceeded, resulting in severe or catastrophic consequences.

One coping strategy to reduce the impacts of climate change is to adapt to the changing conditions. Improving our understanding of the potential impacts of climate change, followed by implementing adaptation mechanisms, can decrease the vulnerability of Canadian municipalities and communities to climate variation and change. It is in the interest of municipal decision-makers to integrate consideration of climate change impacts in their policy and program processes, and resulting plans, both short and long term.

This primer represents a first step in addressing these needs by providing decision makers from all levels of government with information on climate change adaptation. The primer is principally a tool to help municipalities and communities develop a better understanding of adaptation. It can represent a starting point for communities which have not yet formally considered adaptation in their planning processes. For municipalities and communities already engaged in developing adaptation mechanisms, it can be used to enhance understanding of adaptation throughout the local decision-making community, including elected officials, staff and other stakeholders.

The goal of the primer is to help municipalities and communities develop the capacity to make better-informed decisions about adaptation, and contribute to the integration of long-term adaptation planning and implementation in municipal decision-making.

2005-04-05