Report

The State of Play of Natural Infrastructure on the Canadian Prairies

We sat down with key experts across the region and reviewed the latest literature to determine how we take natural infrastructure from novel to normal on Canada's Prairies. 

  • Natural infrastructure is a critical solution to the ever-increasing infrastructure required to treat and supply clean, fresh water to the millions who live on Canada's Prairies, as well as to protect them from natural disasters.

  • Canada's Prairies are highly vulnerable to floods, droughts, wildfires, and other impacts from climate change, but they also host unique ecosystems and opportunities for scaling up natural infrastructure.

  • We need more natural infrastructure—and soon. There are hundreds of water-related natural infrastructure projects across the region, but we need broad adoption of natural infrastructure at a societal level to reap the benefits it can provide.

Constrained finances, fragile water resources, and catastrophic weather events are driving the need to rethink water infrastructure for present and future generations. With aging and deteriorating water infrastructure across the Canadian Prairies, natural infrastructure can offer a unique and innovative solution.

But what is natural infrastructure, and how can it help?

Text definition of natural infrastructure

We sat down with key experts across the region and reviewed the latest literature to explore these pressing questions and determine what next steps are required to take natural infrastructure from novel to normal on Canada's Prairies.

Text description of how to scale up natural infrastructure in Canada