Abstract
The city of Toronto is Canada’s largest city, and the fourth largest in North America. In the last two decades, it has experienced significant issues with climate-related water issues, including changing water levels and increasingly frequent and intense wet weather events, which have resulted in, among other things, decreasing water quality and significant local flooding. This paper undertakes an extensive review of current climate science and modelling, climate and water policies, plans and programs in the city, as well as existing governance and community capacities/responses to water-related climate hazards. A modified version of the Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) framework that incorporates locally relevant environmental, governance and social indicators, is used to build a comprehensive profile of the state of climate change readiness and community resilience in the city. Results from the modified BRIC assessment are used to identify current areas of strength in city/community resilience-building actions and efforts, as well as potential areas of growth and improvement. Using the city of Toronto as an illustrative case-study, this paper demonstrates the importance of establishing a strong baseline understanding of the current community, governance and institutional contexts, as a precursor to, and a fundamental step in addressing existing gaps in community resilience and water governance actions and efforts, and ultimately, in increasing overall climate and community resilience in the city. The paper also explores and highlights the key role of community engagement, equity and Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in building capacity to increase this climate readiness and resilience.
Presenters
Yena Bassone QuashieStudent, PhD, Toronto Metropolitan University, Ontario, Canada Carolyn Johns
Professor, Politics and Public Administration, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Technical, Political, and Social Responses
KEYWORDS
CLIMATE CHANGE, CLIMATE RESILIENCE, WATER GOVERNANCE, COMMUNITY RESILIENCE
