3. 1. How and when was
the CoV able to
prioritize climate
change adaptation in
their policy?
2. What was the
political context that
enabled the CoV to
develop and adopt
climate change
adaptation policies?
3. Are their lessons that
can be derived from
Vancouver’s story?
Research Questions
4. What is climate change adaptation?
Actions that respond to the impacts of climate change
(for example, flooding caused by sea level rise or
increased precipitation) that also take advantage of
opportunities or reduce associated risks.
6. Why am I researching climate change
adaptation in Vancouver?
1. Climate
change is a
global
issue.
Adaptation
is best
addressed
locally.
7.
8. 2.
Vancouver
is a unique
leader in
urban
sustainable
policy
planning.
Photo: Vancouver is
awarded the title
Global Earth Hour
Capital 2013
Why am I researching climate change
adaptation in Vancouver?
9. The city of
Vancouver is
striving to
become the
world’s
“Greenest City”
during a
critical time for
global climate
governance.
10. 3. Vancouver
engages with
best practices
in
stakeholder
engagement,
community
collaboration
and policy
integration.
More than 35,000 people
More than 9,500 residents
Over 60 City staff
More than 120 organizations
Why am I
researching climate
change adaptation
in Vancouver?
11. How did I conduct
my research?
Methods:
1. Literature
review
2. Story of
urban climate
governance in
Vancouver
3. Semi-
structured
interviews
with Key
Informants
12. Method
1. Literature
review
Urban sustainability
and climate change
Disaster
response lit.
Climate change
adaptation and
mitigation
The Carbon Neutral
City Planner tool
based on getting to
carbon neutral
The large
cities: climate
leadership group C40
Carbon disclosure
project
The partners for
climate protection
(PCP)
The federation of
Canadian
municipalities (FCM)
Complex systems
theory
Resilience and
Adaptive
management
Panarchy
ACCCERN & ISET:
urban climate
resilience planning
framework
Resilience alliance,
assessing resilience in
social-ecological systems:
workbook for practitioners
version 2.0
ICLEI – local
governments for
sustainability
15. 16 interviews conduced from July – September 2013
Andrea Reimer: city
councillor 2002-
present
MLA Sam Sullivan:
city councillor 1993-
2005, Mayor 2005-
2008
David Cadman: city
councillor 2002-2007,
20 years @ Metro
Vancouver, President
of ICLEI - Local
Governments for
Sustainability
Gordon Price: city
councillor 1986-2002,
Director of Translink
1999-2002, board
member International
Center for Sustainable
Cities
Ken Cameron: 1978-
2004 Metro Vancouver,
100 yr. livable regional
plan.
Tamsin Mills: CoV
Sustainability group
Climate Change
Adaptation Planner
16.
17. How did the CoV develop its
Climate Change Adaptation
Strategy?
18.
19.
20. Vancouver’s Climate change
adaptation strategy policy actions
1. Flood risk assessment
2. Integrated storm-water
management plan and
sewer separation
3. Back-up power policy
4. Increase shelter space
5. Water conservation
6. Extreme heat planning
7. Update Vancouver
building bylaw
8. Urban forest
9. Stakeholder engagement
21. 1. Culture of Livability &
Sustainability
Urban futures surveys: 1973,
1990, 2012
2. History of good policy
decisions
No highway, ALR, no increase in
road capacity
Urban density, Live-Work-Play
3. Key events contributed to
public awareness of climate
issues
Flood 1945, Wind storm 2006
IPCC assessment reports
Al Gore – inconvenient truth
Environmental disasters: New
Orleans, New York, Calgary.
Preliminary Results
22. 4. Strong leadership
Engineers - Climate change
adaptation working group
(2007)
Vision Vancouver (2008)
5. Organizational structure
at City Hall’s
Sustainability Group
6. Partnership with ICLEI,
FCM, Metro Vancouver
7. Strong policy integration
and no-regret actions
Ongoing sewer replacement
Urban forest - recycled from
clouds of change report
23. 1. Complete content and discourse analysis of interviews.
2. Integrate with literature review
3. Write narrative: Vancouver’s story of climate governance
Lots of
work left
to do…
Editor's Notes
This template can be used as a starter file to give updates for project milestones.
Sections
Right-click on a slide to add sections. Sections can help to organize your slides or facilitate collaboration between multiple authors.
Notes
Use the Notes section for delivery notes or to provide additional details for the audience. View these notes in Presentation View during your presentation.
Keep in mind the font size (important for accessibility, visibility, videotaping, and online production)
Coordinated colors
Pay particular attention to the graphs, charts, and text boxes.
Consider that attendees will print in black and white or grayscale. Run a test print to make sure your colors work when printed in pure black and white and grayscale.
Graphics, tables, and graphs
Keep it simple: If possible, use consistent, non-distracting styles and colors.
Label all graphs and tables.
Research Goal:
To understand when and how the City of Vancouver BC was able to prioritize climate change adaptation in their policies,
so other cities can begin the process of building resilience to mitigate climate change impacts.
Research Goal:
To understand when and how the City of Vancouver BC was able to prioritize climate change adaptation in their policies, so other cities can begin the process of building resilience to mitigate climate change impacts.
This research investigates the city of Vancouver’s journey of confronting climate change via adaptation policies that focus on building resilience to prospective vulnerabilities.
There is significant overlap between climate change adaptation, mitigation and sustainability measures including those designed to improve green-space, foster urban agriculture and facilitate improvements in buildings and urban infrastructure.
Adaptation more explicitly engages a wider range of issues, particularly emergency management, health and the needs of vulnerable populations in a changing climate.
You may be thinking why am I only looking at adaptation.
Vancouver is already Mitigating climate change by reducing GHG emissions
Other studies have looked at mitigation
Climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts have been made by municipalities more than other levels of government.
While effective mitigation requires a coordinated global effort, adaptation requires a local response.
Climate change will affect communities differently.
2. Vancouver is perceived to be a unique leader in urban sustainable policy planning. As seen in top Greenest City rankings, and multiple Greenest City awards.
Greenest City AwArds:
2013 world wildlife Fund earth Hour City Challenge: global earth Hour Capital
2013 world wildlife Fund earth Hour City Challenge: People’s Choice
2013 Mediacorp Canada inc’s: Canada’s Top 55 greenest employers
2012 Guangzhou international Award: for urban Innovation
2013 Corporate Knights north American sustainable Cities scorecard: Top 5
Greenest City Action Plan (GCAP); Goal 2: climate leadership; key strategy: develop a climate change adaptation plan. This led to the creations of the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (CCAS)
actively added their ideas, insights, and feedback to help determine the best path to achieve this plan.
thousands of individuals contributing to the creation of the GCAP, the COV has set
the example for best practice in citizen collaboration and built the
kinds of partnerships required for achieving the Greenest City goals
and targets.
Regional: Greater Vancouver Regional District: Metro Vancouver is both a nonpartisan political body and corporate entity operating under provincial legislation as a ‘regional district’ and ‘greater boards’ on behalf of twenty-two member municipalities and one electoral area. The three primary roles are service delivery, planning, and political leadership.
In 2002, the Metro Vancouver Board made sustainability the central tenet of all Metro Vancouver plans and operations. In doing so, Metro Vancouver is committed to achieving “the highest quality of life embracing cultural vitality, economic prosperity, social justice and compassion, all nurtured by a beautiful and healthy environment” within the region. “A Roadmap to Sustainability” provides a succinct history of why sustainability is important at Metro Vancouver and how it is being turned into actions.
Methods:
Literature review
Identify the wider academic conversations and theories in relation to urban climate governance. Investigate theoretical climate governance models.
Story of urban climate governance in Vancouver
Understand the policy context at all levels of government: Regulations, laws and standards. Build a narrative that critically engages with contemporary theoretical climate governance models.
Semi-structured interviews with Key Informants
CoV staff, elected officials, policy makers
Identify the wider academic conversations and theories in relation to urban climate governance. Investigate theoretical climate governance models.
Understand the policy context at all levels of government. Review Regulations, laws and standards that relate to climate change. Build a narrative that critically engages with contemporary theoretical climate governance models. An excavation of policy documents, city council memos and minutes, news reports and other academic and non academic sources that relate to climate governance in Vancouver.
Thematic content analysis looking for Drivers of change, opportunities for policy making, seminal events and influencial people.
City of Vancouver Municipal government:
Electoral system: At-large elections (not a ward system as is common in most Canadian cities)
Vancouver Charter (provincial charter grants the COV special status)
Bureaucracy led by City Manager and includes the Sustainability Group
Metro Vancouver: the greater Vancouver regional government:
Air quality, waste management, regional growth and transportation
British Columbia Provincial:
Climate Action Charter - 2007
2008 : Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Cap and Trade) Act and Carbon Tax Act
Sea Level rise and Flood levels
Interview select members of the Office of the City Manager’s Sustainability Group, City Council and Mayor, and other contributors to Vancouver’s sustainability policies: Greenest City Action Plan (GCAP) and Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (CCAS), including orgs/NGOs that are helping with implementation and those consulted during their policy development process
Total: 16 interviews conduced from July – September 2013
Current elected officials
1 current city councillor – Andrea Reimer
3 Former city councillors – David Cadman, Gordon Price, Sam Sullivan
1 Metro Vancouver regional Planner – Ken Cameron
1 former mayor – Sam Sullivan
Current/former City staff
1 current member of the Sustainability Group – Tamsin Mills, Doug Smith,
3 members of the Greenest City steering Committee - Sadhu Johnston (Chair), Jerry Dobrovolny, Brian Crow
4 members of the Greenest City Action Team – David Cadman, Mark Holland, Gordon Price, Andrea Reimer
4 members of the Climate Leadership advisory group – Brian Beck, Brian Crow, Tamsin Mills
Leader of the adaptation working group – brian beck
The deputy city manager – Sadhu Johnston
General Manager of Engineering – Peter Judd
Director of Transportation – Jerry Dobrovolny
Deputy Chief Building official – Paty Ryan
1 former Green Building Planner – Dale Mikkelsen
Head of ICLEI – David Cadman
1 Local Journalists – Frances Bulla
Total: 16 interviews conduced from July – September 2013
Current elected officials
1 current city councillor – Andrea Reimer
3 Former city councillors – David Cadman, Gordon Price, Sam Sullivan
1 Metro Vancouver regional Planner – Ken Cameron
1 former mayor – Sam Sullivan
Current/former City staff
1 current member of the Sustainability Group – Tamsin Mills, Doug Smith,
3 members of the Greenest City steering Committee - Sadhu Johnston (Chair), Jerry Dobrovolny, Brian Crow
4 members of the Greenest City Action Team – David Cadman, Mark Holland, Gordon Price, Andrea Reimer
3 members of the Climate Leadership advisory group – Brian Beck, Brian Crow, Tamsin Mills
Leader of the adaptation working group – Brian beck
The deputy city manager – Sadhu Johnston
General Manager of Engineering – Peter Judd
Director of Transportation – Jerry Dobrovolny
Deputy Chief Building official – Paty Ryan
1 former Green Building Planner – Dale Mikkelsen
Head of ICLEI – David Cadman
1 Local Journalists – Frances Bulla
Information on Vancouver
Geography : bounded by water and mountains
Vancouver is unique in BC:
Provincial statute, passed in 1953, incorporates the City of Vancouver, BC, Canada. This legislation supersedes the Vancouver Incorporation Act and grants the City different powers than other communities have under BC's Municipalities Act. See: The Vancouver Charter
For many decades, Vancouver had wards and no political parties or slates. But once the ward system in 1936 was replaced by an at-large system, left-wing and right-wing political parties entered the civic arena.
an approach to development that became known worldwide as Vancouverism — the creation of high-density neighbourhoods with plenty of community amenities on the edge of downtown
2010 - The City joined the Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI ) Climate Change Adaptation Initiative pilot .
The ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) milestones follow a risk assessment format.
Milestone 1: Initiate: Create a Baseline Emissions, Inventory and Forecast
(CoV worked with the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium at Uvic to develop climate projections; meetings with general managers and CoV working groups to identify the urban impacts; prioritized through a risk and vulnerability assessment.)
Milestone 2: Research: Set Emissions Reduction Targets
Milestone 3: Plan: Develop a Local Action Plan
Milestone 4: Implement: Implement the Local Action Plan; the Sustainability Group at City Hall is the department responsible for implementation.
Milestone 5: Monitor: Monitor Progress and Report Results
Precipitation as Snow: Vancouver’s drinking
water comes from mountain reservoirs and the
snowpack melt and rainfall that supply them.
April 1 snowpack has decreased on average by
25% in BC over the past 50 years with some sites
experiencing a 50% reduction.
precipitation as snow is projected to decrease in
the areas of Metro Vancouver that are important
for water supply. reductions will be evident by
the 2050s and precipitation as snow is projected
almost to disappear by 2080.
growing Degree Days: growing degree days
are an important indicator of opportunities
for agriculture but may also increase the risk of
invasive species spread. they are determined by
the accumulation of degrees over 5°C per day.
Regionally, modeled gdds are projected to increase by
approximately one to two thirds in the 2050s and
to as much as double by the 2080s from a baseline
of approximately 1700 degree days.
annual heating and Cooling degree days: Heating
and cooling degree days are useful indicators
of energy demands required for heating and
cooling. HVAC systems, general building design,
district energy systems and other energy infra-
structure all rely on this information. An approximate
25% and 35% reduction by the 2050s and 2080s
respectively in heating degree-days signals a
significant reduction in cold season energy
requirements.
2012 - The City became the first Canadian municipality to adopt such a strategy
Strategy Vision:
To ensure that Vancouver remains a liveable and resilient city, maintaining its values, character and charm in the face of climate change.
Guiding Principles:
Adaptive management
Co-benefits
Integration
Strong networks
People who are most vulnerable.
Goals:
Increase the resilience of City infrastructure, programs and services to anticipated local climate change impacts.
Promote and facilitate the incorporation of climate change information into City business.
Improve awareness, knowledge, skills and resources of City staff.
Enhance opportunities for coordination and cooperation through the development of networks and partnerships.
Complete a coastal flood risk assessment and amend flood-proofing policies
Develop and implement a citywide integrated storm-water management plan and continue with sewer separation
Develop a back-up power policy
Increase shelter space and education campaign on Mould
Continue to implement water conservation actions
Support and expand extreme heat planning
Include climate change adaptation measures in the next Vancouver Building Bylaw update
Develop and implement a comprehensive urban forest management plan
Collaborate regionally via stakeholder engagement
sustainability group:
Formed in 2003.
Responsible for the development and implantation of the GCAP, CCAS and Green Operations Plan.
Provides advise, research and project leadership.
Engage with partners such as: other levels of government, the Port, BC Hydro.
In 2012, the sustainability group led the development of the climate change adaptation strategy in collaboration with departmens across the city, receiving unanimous approval for the strategy from city council.
