From Hazard Identification to Costing Adaptation: Shifting the emphasis for the benefit of northern community planning

Climate change is a significant challenge for the North, where communities are already experiencing the impacts of a warming climate. Northern communities are concerned about the impacts of these changes on their infrastructure and the related costs to their communities.

This project aims to reveal the costs and benefits of alternative adaptation choices for community infrastructure in two northern communities. Using existing landscape hazard maps and related vulnerabilities, a range of adaptation options will be assessed for housing in Old Crow, Yukon, and Arviat, Nunavut. A cost-benefit analysis will be paired with detailed vulnerability mapping and infrastructure vulnerability assessments to identify, quantify and monetize how adaptation choices will affect economic outcomes under probable climate change futures. Project outcomes include Cost-of-Adaptation maps that can be used by community planners and decision-makers to guide local planning and development decisions, and a methodology that can be used for future cost-of-adaptation analyses on other types of infrastructure that are vulnerable to changing climate and environment. Also provided will be a series of communication tools that translate the range of technical analyses into readily understandable information to improve decision making. The project outputs will be tested and validated locally to improve community outcomes.