Climate Change Adaptation on the Front Burner in the Great Lakes Region According to New EcoAdapt Survey
By Rachel M. Gregg
Climate change may have been placed on the back burner during the presidential debates, but it is a hot topic of conversation – and action – in the Great Lakes!
Climate change may have been placed on the back burner during the presidential debates, but it is a hot topic of conversation – and action – in the Great Lakes!
The region’s freshwater resources are experiencing climate-induced
changes in temperature, precipitation, lake level, and water chemistry that are
affecting human communities and natural environments; these effects are
expected to magnify in coming years. Managers, planners, and decision makers
are tasked with the challenge of developing strategies to prepare for and
respond to a changing climate; these strategies and actions are classified as
“adaptation.”
To develop a better
understanding of how people in the Great Lakes are engaging in climate change
adaptation and to support others who want to learn from these examples, EcoAdapt
expanded their State of Adaptation survey to include the freshwater resources
of the region. Through interviews and surveys with regional practitioners, EcoAdapt
developed a synthesis report, The
State of Climate Change Adaptation in the Great Lakes Region. This synthesis
provides:
·
A summary of key regional climate
change impacts;
·
Examples of over 100
adaptation initiatives from the region, focusing on activities in the natural
and built environments as they relate to freshwater resources;
·
Fifty-seven case studies,
detailing how adaptation is taking shape (see examples on 2nd page
of this release); and
·
An overview of challenges
and opportunities for freshwater adaptation in the Great Lakes region.
The majority of adaptation activities in the region focus on building
capacity to address climate change, including improving understanding and
awareness, acquiring and developing resources and tools, and establishing
collaborative partnerships. Important next steps for advancing adaptation in
the Great Lakes region are to increase information exchange, encourage planning
and integration across political boundaries, implement adaptation plans and strategies,
and evaluate the effectiveness of the actions taken.
Products generated from this project, including case studies, will be
shared through another EcoAdapt project, the Climate Adaptation Knowledge
Exchange (CAKE; www.cakex.org). The
synthesis report and case studies provide useful information on climate change
adaptation in the Great Lakes for both novice and experienced practitioners
within or beyond the region’s borders to apply to their own work. Readers can
learn about different types of adaptation strategies, find real world examples
of how others in similar disciplines or regions are incorporating climate
change into their work, and locate the people and tools needed to help move their
adaptation efforts forward. CAKE also provides the opportunity for users to
join and engage in a community of practice where they can share their own case
studies, tools, resources, and lessons learned.
To learn more about the State of Adaptation Program and this project,
visit the project page. To join the CAKE community and learn more about climate adaptation, visit www.cakex.org.
What does adaptation look like
in the Great Lakes?
Real people are doing real
things to meet the challenges of climate change to the Great Lakes Region. Here
are a few examples of what’s afoot:
Example 1: The Minnehaha
Creek Watershed Stormwater Adaptation Study
Where: Minneapolis and Victoria, Minnesota, USA
Who: Minnehaha Creek Watershed District
Why: Storms in the state have become more frequent and
intense in recent years and these events are overwhelming the region’s
stormwater management systems. Recent flooding events in cities such as Duluth
have increased the need for climate-smart water resource management approaches
to reduce the risk of infrastructure and property damage, pollution, and
habitat loss.
How: Project partners are engaged in a stakeholder-driven
process to evaluate existing stormwater systems, identify vulnerabilities, and
develop adaptation plans to increase resilience.
Example 2: The Community
Adaptation Initiative
Where: Ontario, Canada
Who: The Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and
Adaptation Resources (OCCIAR), Clean Air Partnership, and the Ontario Ministry
of the Environment
Why: Climate change impacts in Ontario include increasing
air temperatures, more extreme precipitation events, and decreasing lake
levels, among others, that are affecting community health, resources, and
economic well-being.
How: This outreach
project is designed to increase public understanding and awareness to climate
change in order to spur action. The partners have created five case studies of
municipal adaptation activities in the province and a series of fact sheets on
adaptation. In addition, they are hosting training and planning workshops to
build community capacity for adaptation and develop climate-smart communities.