Climate Adaptation Plan

The City of St. Catharines' Climate Adaptation Plan outlines a variety of climate action goals to address the local impacts of climate change on municipal operations and services.

Climate action goals

Moving towards a climate resilient future requires attainable action and monitoring progress. Review the six climate action goals outlined in the Climate Adaptation Plan:

Prepare for hotter summers
Prepare for and respond to extreme weather events
Develop a flood prevention strategy
Improve stormwater management including the use of green infrastructure
Prepare for high Lake Ontario water levels
Re-think how the city addresses climate change

Five key milestones

The five key milestones for climate adaptation planning are:

Initiate an adaptation effort – complete
Research climate change impacts – complete
Develop an adaptation timeline – complete
Implementation of the plan – in progress
Monitor and review the plan – future action

The city has completed the first three key milestones and is working on the fourth, implementation of the plan. To demonstrate progress the creation of an annual progress report can be found below.

Climate change impacts for St. Catharines

The Climate Adaptation Plan highlights four common areas where we can expect to see the impacts of climate change in our city. Review each area and find out how this will affect our municipal operations and services.

Increase in heat

Increase in temperature and heat will have the following climate impacts in St. Catharines:

Outdoor workers and firefighters experience increased risk of heat stress and decreased productivity dur to summer heat waves
Vulnerable populations will be negatively impacted due to heat stress and will require more City services
Ecological impacts to plants and trees from increased heat stress leading to less growth and higher mortality

Increase in precipitation

The top climate impacts resulting from an increase in precipitation, include:

Increased spring rainfall leading to increased sewer overflow events resulting in more contamination of local waterways and Lake Ontario
Increased runoff leading to increased stormwater pollution and impaired water quality
High lake levels reducing the ability to use beaches and City facilities

Increase in heavy precipitation events

Some of the top climate impacts of increased heavy precipitation events are:

More frequent flooding events affecting more residents and infrastructure
Due to increased overland runoff there will be greater need for maintenance of storm drainage systems
Higher lake levels lead to increased erosion resulting in damage to shorelines and requiring increased shoreline protection

Increase in extreme weather events

Here are the top climate impacts of extreme events:

Increase in extreme events resulting in property damage and higher insurance
Increate in extreme events causes disruptions to transportation routes resulting in delays to emergency response
Environmental damage from extreme weather events (i.e., ice storms, severe wind, snowstorms) causes infrastructure damage