Preparing Cambridge for a changing climate
After recent and more frequent extreme weather events, the City of Cambridge recognized the need to prepare their community for a changing climate. In 2018, they secured funding through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) to develop a climate adaptation plan.
Stantec has an ongoing relationship with the City for various environmental and greenhouse gas mitigation projects, and our team saw an opportunity to help Cambridge submit a grant application to FCM. We were retained throughout project implementation, facilitating the entire adaptation planning process over a year. This included convening the requisite local and regional stakeholders, liaising with the working committee put forward by the City to champion the plan, and facilitating multiple workshops exploring hazards, risks, and adaptation strategies. Critically, the plan considered what was happening within the Waterloo region, where they were also undertaking a climate action planning process, and thus focused attention on realistic actions that could be grounded in existing departments and policies.
The resulting plan demonstrated a strong community identity, realistic timelines, and an easily digestible summary of a complex process. The key themes were neighborhood flooding, built environment, infrastructure resiliency, natural environment, and community resiliency, and the plan supported the City in their application to FCM for further funding for a climate action coordinator position within their government.
At a Glance
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Shane O'Hanlon, Senior Climate Risk and Resilience Consultant
My focus is on helping communities, cities and developers plan for and adapt to a future of climate uncertainty.
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