{"id":8223,"date":"2021-10-19T16:30:11","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T20:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/uncategorized\/toward-more-resilient-cities\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T12:32:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:32:53","slug":"toward-more-resilient-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/en\/uncategorized\/toward-more-resilient-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"Toward more resilient cities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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R\u00e9my Bourdillon – unpointcinq<\/strong><\/p>\n

Municipalities are on the front lines of managing the impacts of climate change. Adapting is not only a vital necessity but also a valuable opportunity to promote more sustainable urban planning. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Qu\u00e9bec cities will (and already do) face the consequences of warming. In summer, longer and more frequent heat waves will be amplified by heat islands. In winter, more frequent freezing\u2011rain events will damage infrastructure and private property. And since increased precipitation is expected, flooding will be a growing concern, whether caused by overflowing rivers or runoff across large asphalted or concreted surfaces. <\/p>\n

In recent years, many municipalities have turned to greening to counter these problems. For instance, Montr\u00e9al and Qu\u00e9bec City\u2019s green alleys provide welcome summer cooling. The revegetation of formerly paved or mineralized surfaces plays a similar role, while also capturing precipitation and allowing it to infiltrate the soil. <\/p>\n

These \u201cgreen infrastructures\u201d have the advantage of improving over time, notes Maxime Fortin Faubert, a David Suzuki Foundation research fellow who published three studies this year urging municipalities to take action on climate change adaptation: \u201cThe older a tree gets, the more water and CO\u2082 it captures, and the more significant its cooling effect becomes. In contrast, concrete cracks and becomes expensive to maintain.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the coastal regions of eastern Qu\u00e9bec, where erosion is a growing problem, the trend is also to mimic nature by replenishing beaches with sand, sometimes using plants to prevent it from being washed away. Previously favoured concrete walls and rock armouring have shown their limits: they often simply displace, or even worsen, the issue. <\/p>\n

Adaptation begins the moment we start thinking about it<\/h3>\n

Adapting means first and foremost reducing vulnerabilities, that is, limiting potential damage in the event of a climate\u2011related hazard. This involves considering the possibility of increasingly severe weather events when designing roads or residential neighbourhoods, and updating this knowledge for existing infrastructure. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, in Qu\u00e9bec, this is not (yet) systematic, notes Pierre Valois, Director of the Qu\u00e9bec Climate Change Adaptation Observatory (OQACC) at Universit\u00e9 Laval: \u201cIn 2015, 26% of people living in flood\u2011risk zones were unaware of it\u2026 and by 2019 that number had risen to 35%!\u201d<\/p>\n

On a more positive note, many municipalities are already engaging in climate adaptation without realizing it, explains Johann Jacob, doctoral candidate in measurement and evaluation at OQACC. \u201cIf you are thinking about mapping flood\u2011risk areas or if you\u2019ve sent municipal staff for training on sustainable land\u2011use planning, you are already engaging in an adaptation process.\u201d <\/p>\n

Climate change will also bring other challenges that may not initially seem to fall under municipal responsibility, notes Pierre Valois: \u201cThe pollen season that causes allergies now lasts nearly four months, compared to two in the past. Lyme disease didn\u2019t exist here before, but ticks have migrated north\u2026\u201d OQACC recommends integrating these new realities into park design, for example, placing playgrounds away from wooded areas or removing vegetation along walking trails.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond streets, parks, and public buildings, municipalities can also regulate private space, notably by adopting urban planning bylaws that control what property owners can do,\u201d adds Catherine Perras, urban planning advisor at Vivre en Ville. This can involve adopting greening standards for private lots or requiring specific construction materials such as white roofs, which help reduce heat islands. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Resistance of all kinds<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Adaptation is a real imperative, since floods and heat waves threaten public safety\u2014both physical and mental. Financially, the costs of climate\u2011related damage to poorly designed structures will eventually become prohibitive. <\/p>\n

Quality of life is also at stake: when homes threatened by flooding in Beauce must be demolished, an entire neighbourhood\u2019s social fabric disappears. \u201cIn Scott, there was a caf\u00e9 and a corner store that no longer exist today and were never reopened elsewhere,\u201d says Catherine Perras. <\/p>\n

That said, adaptation is not always straightforward. \u201cSome issues, like flooding, are regional, because watersheds do not stop at municipal boundaries,\u201d she points out. As a result, acting alone can seem futile if neighbouring towns do not follow suit. <\/p>\n

The rigidity of municipal structures is another challenge: urban planning, public works, and recreation departments often work in silos, each with its own budget, whereas \u201cadaptation projects are multidisciplinary by definition,\u201d reminds Catherine Perras. Although expertise is increasingly available\u2014from the Ouranos research consortium and the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change\u2014a small municipality may struggle to access climate data at a hyper\u2011local scale. <\/p>\n

A more down\u2011to\u2011earth reality: a municipal council must constantly juggle urgent matters and often faces scepticism when investing large sums to address a threat with an unclear timeline. \u201cBringing these issues to the agenda can be a challenge, because even if people say they care about the environment, they don\u2019t want it to cost them too much in taxes,\u201d says Johann Jacob, before adding, \u201cThis may change as voter concern increases.\u201d The current municipal election campaign is certainly an opportunity to demonstrate that. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: https:\/\/bit.ly\/3nbvu6Q<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

R\u00e9my Bourdillon – unpointcinq Municipalities are on the front lines of managing the impacts of climate change. Adapting is not only a vital necessity but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8239,"href":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8223\/revisions\/8239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oqacc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}