Canada has a national climate adaptation strategy, but it’s largely up to its provinces and cities to move this work forward. Within provincial and city government, landscape architects in leadership roles have developed inventive climate and biodiversity policies that the rest of the world can learn from. Their leadership offers lessons that transcend borders.
In an online discussion organized by the ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Committee and the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, three Canadian landscape architects working in government outlined how they are moving beyond the national adaptation plan and preparing communities and ecosystems for a changing world.
Nunavut is in the far north of Canada. It covers more than two million square kilometers, one-fifth of Canada’s territory, and spans three time zones. Approximately 85 percent of the population of 37,000 is Inuit.
According to landscape architect Cameron DeLong, director of the climate change secretariat in Nunavut’s government, Canada’s national adaptation strategy is more focused on urban solutions in southern provinces than the challenges facing the far north. “So we had to chart a path on our own.”
“Here, climate risk isn’t an abstract concept but impacting our safety, culture, and survival.” In the north, temperatures are warming three times faster, causing rapid sea ice loss and thawing ground. These environmental changes impact infrastructure — roads, bridges, and trails. And in isolated rural communities, that creates real risks. “It can be unsafe to travel to school and healthcare.”
The loss of sea ice also impacts Inuit’s ability to harvest food sources and sustain their livelihoods and culture. “There are risks of cultural erosion, food insecurity, and the loss of our way of life,” DeLong said.
To identify and measure these impacts, Nunavut conducted a climate risk and resilience assessment, outlining climate projections, based in science and Inuit knowledge. They also developed an equitable, Inuit-led resilience strategy: Upagiaqtavut – Setting the Course: Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in Nunavut. The assessment and strategy are “providing a foundation for government agencies to embed climate change into their work.”
Through the process, DeLong found that “resilience is not just about managing risk but also protecting cultural identity. Resilience must be values-based. Equity can’t be an after thought. We must listen deeply to communities.”
The discussion then shifted to the west coast of Canada, the city of Vancouver in British Columbia. It’s a coastal city with a population of more than 700,000, “on the edge of a vast wilderness,” explained Cameron Owen, senior urban designer and landscape architect with the City of Vancouver.
With climate change, the city is facing increased rainfall, flooding, and sea level rise — a challenge of too much water. In 2018, the city developed the Rain City Strategy with the “goal of managing stormwater sustainably through green infrastructure,” Owen said.
The strategy leverages the Sponge City concept to “make room for water and nature” throughout the city’s districts. The strategy, which will take 30 years to fully implement, looks at “all forms of water” in the urban watershed, “responds to risks, and encourages collaboration and innovation.”
To create more local solutions, Vancouver set up planning units that look at water and also heat, connectivity, and equity. In these units, landscape architects and engineers work together to prioritize investments in green infrastructure and sewer and drainage systems, considering all water infrastructure in an integrated way.
On the ground, the city’s landscape architects are creating green infrastructure systems and rain gardens that are “designed to keep water as close to where it falls,” Owen said. These blue-green systems are then being connected with networks of rainways, which are constructed wetlands.
The St. George community rainway reopened a stream that was once channeled into a pipe, providing a new space for rainwater to flow. This rainway was planted with Indigenous plants for pollinators and the community supported its construction and on-going maintenance. All these new green features are improving livability. “They are important to communities.” And the investments are also supporting the goals of the city’s 2050 plan and VanPlay, its parks master plan.
Turning to the east coast of Canada: Toronto has a population of over 3 million, making it the fourth largest city in North America. Founded in 1793 on the north shore of Lake Ontario, it has grown rapidly over the past two centuries.
Climate change has increased temperatures and rainfall in the city, explained Jane Welsh, a landscape architect and project manager with the environmental planning unit of Toronto City Planning. Biodiversity loss also threatens more damage to the ecosystems in the city and surrounding areas.
To address these challenges, Toronto has taken action through new policies and regulations. “We realized that among shifting expectations, we needed rules and to set some bare minimums.” Welsh and other landscape architects have been instrumental in developing and implementing the world-leading Toronto Green Standard, Green Roof Bylaw, Bird Friendly Guidelines, Ravine Protection Bylaw, and Toronto’s biodiversity strategy.
Since 2010, the green standard has been guiding public and private projects to meet 35 sustainable design and performance measures, covering water and air quality, energy, ecosystems, and greenhouse gas emissions. “Over the past 15 years, it has enabled us to create space for trees and led to the use of silva cells and adequate soil for street trees,” Welsh said. It’s also a key tool in the city’s effort to become net-zero by 2040.
The city’s green roof bylaw was the first for a major city and it has proven successful. “Since 2010, we have built 1,000 green roofs.” Toronto is also part of a major bird migratory pathway traveled by more than 170 species. It’s bird friendly guidelines were another first and have helped reduce bird loss from collisions with buildings.
The city’s ravine and natural protection bylaw protects trees and natural areas from development. This has helped the city increase the tree canopy to 31 percent and more than 11.5 million trees, Welsh explained. But she said those trees are still not equitably spread throughout the city, with 58 percent of trees in more affluent neighborhoods. “There are gaps in the tree canopy, and equity factors into urban heat island severity.” The city has developed more than 30 green streets, a green street master plan, and thermal comfort guidelines to start to tackle the problem.
And to increase biodiversity, the city has invested in “re-naturalizing” the Don River, a two-decade, $1,4 billion flood protection and restoration project led by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, and supported local seed sourcing and pollinator gardens.
In Nunavut, Vancouver, and Toronto, landscape architects are showing the value of leading from within government and applying design skills to creating and implementing policy. Welsh noted that Nunavut is the “canary in the coal mine when it comes to climate change — emotionally and culturally.” One key message from these local leaders: an equitable approach — across cities and entire countries — is key to long-term resilience.