Globe and Mail - How will ‘managed retreat’ fit into Canada’s climate-change adaptation plans?
2021 was a devastating year for Western Canada, having been hit by a string of climate-change related disasters including unprecedented drought, wildfires and flooding. As we look back on this difficult year, now is the time to ask how we as a country can begin adapting ourselves to the new reality of climate change in Canada.
In this article by the Globe and Mail, we see how managed retreat can play a role in mitigating the impact of future flooding in communities across Canada. But, as noted in the article it’s important to remember that “climate change is changing the frequency, severity and distribution of natural hazards.“ The word ‘distribution’ is key here - will today’s flood plains be an appropriate guide for housing development in 10, 20, 50 or 100 years from now?
We hope that the Canada1Water initiative will help to answer this key question. C1W will be an indispensable tool for policy and decision makers who help us to navigate the difficult world of climate change adaptation/mitigation, by giving them a clear forecast on how climate change will impact Canada’s hydrologic systems based on state-of-the-art hydrologic simulations.
Click here to read the Globe and Mail article, part of their new initiative called "No Safe Place”, a year-long Globe project on climate adaptation in the wake of a string of climate-related disasters in Western Canada.
“Canada’s Minister of Emergency Preparedness, Bill Blair, visited Merritt this spring to talk to people living with the uncertainty of whether they can, or should, rebuild their homes. “Everywhere I go, I see the local officials and people who’ve been impacted by these events. And it’s very clear that there has been a number of communities that have been built in areas that are high risk – and the risk is changing as well,” he said in an interview.
“What used to be 100-year flooding events have been far more frequent.”
“Merritt’s existing floodplain maps show that much of the city is built where the Nicola River is inclined to flood. Mike Goetz’s home on the Coldwater River, where he has lived for 27 years, should have been safe – but it wasn’t. Last summer’s wildfires were among the worst on record in B.C., and consumed some of the forests around the valley. The charred land couldn’t absorb November’s heavy rains.
“It’s very easy to see global warming,” he said. “I wasn’t on the floodplain, but now it is a floodplain.”