Case studies: Using data to address water infrastructure vulnerabilities

Municipal assets and public services are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, placing local leaders at the frontlines of risk reduction and adaptation. However, it can be difficult for municipalities and utilities to identify accurately their risk to climate change due to a lack of data.

Does your municipality have water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure that is vulnerable to temperature fluctuations, extreme precipitation and other extreme weather events associated with climate change? Are you interested in learning how to better use data to protect your community from risks related to climate change?

FCM, PSD, Canadian Water Network, and Canadian Water and Wastewater Association developed a case study series to help.

You’ll learn:

• How communities identified risks to climate-related damage, such as flooding.
• The steps municipalities took to adapt their water, wastewater, stormwater, and other municipal infrastructure to climate impacts.
• How using better data or filling in the gap by pooling diverse datasets can enhance your community’s efforts.
• How communities improved their data collection methods to better support water infrastructure planning
• Strategies and approaches that can be applied to increase your municipality’s system resilience to climate change.

Read the case study series.

The series includes the following communities and topics:

• Kenora, Ontario: Asset Risk Assessment
• Edmonton, Alberta: Flood Mitigation and Mapping
• Moncton, New Brunswick: Flood Mitigation and Neighbourhood Vulnerability Assessment
• Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: Grey and Green Infrastructure Adaptation
• Lake Erie, Ontario (Union Water Supply System): Drinking Water System Vulnerability Assessment

Who is this case study series for?

This case study series will be of particular interest to municipal staff in the planning, environmental, engineering, and public works departments, as well as local climate coordinators.

FCM, Public Sector Digest, the Canadian Water Network (CWN) and the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA) developed the case studies series specifically for municipalities.

This resource was developed by the Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program (2017-2022). This program was delivered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and funded by the Government of Canada.