Climate Action Council

Green Infrastructure

Town of Pelham’s Natural Asset Management Plan

The Town of Pelham has completed a Municipal Natural Asset Management Plan (MNAMP) to enhance its understanding, evaluation, and management of natural assets. This project, supported by a grant from the Greenbelt Foundation and in partnership with the Natural Asset Initiative, identified and inventoried over 4,000 natural assets. The project assessed the current condition of these assets, the services they provide, and estimated their value at approximately $600,000,000, primarily in stormwater management services.

In this webinar, Michelle Molnar, Technical Director with Natural Assets Initiative, provided an overview of natural asset management. Shannon Larocque, Manager of Planning, and Samantha Witkowski, Environmental Coordinator from the Town of Pelham, discussed the development process of the MNAMP and presented key recommendations for managing the Town’s natural assets moving forward.

Additional Resources

If you would like a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org

Mitigating Flood Risk: CVC’s Smart Blue Roof Project

As Canada experiences more extreme rainfall, the risk of flooding increases, highlighting the growing need for innovative stormwater management solutions.  Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) constructed a smart blue roof in 2023 with commissioning and initial operations beginning in Spring -Summer, 2024.  CVC’s smart blue roof was the first in Canada to be built in compliance with the Canadian Standards Association’s standard for Rainwater Harvesting Systems (CSA B805-18).  The smart blue roof uses modulating control valves directed by a programable logic controller (PLC) to open and close, allowing rainfall to be stored, reused or evaporated into the atmosphere. When these valves are closed, approximately 60 m3 (60,000L) can be stored on CVC’s rooftop for flood control. When opened, water drains from the roof into the building’s 5,000 L rainwater harvesting cistern to be used for non-potable uses like flushing of office toilets. The presentation provided an overview of the planning, design, construction, commissioning, initial performance, challenges encountered, and lessons learned to date.

Additional Resources

 

 

Mobilizing Climate Action: Lessons from the Oak Bay Coolkit

The Oak Bay Coolkit program is a joint initiative between the Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry and the District of Oak Bay and is intended to mobilize individual and neighbourhood climate action through participation in a series of fun and interactive engagement activities, beginning with neighbourhood conversations, to local asset and climate vulnerability mapping, carbon footprint calculators, household and block sustainability ratings, visioning exercises and developing localized climate action plans. Chris Hyde-Lay, Manager of Park Services with the District of Oak Bay, provided an overview of the initiative, including lessons learned and project outcomes.

Additional Resources

Climate Integration into Urban Forestry and Stormwater Plans

In this meeting, a team of University of Toronto students who have worked with CAP in the last few months summarized their research on the main practices of climate integration in Urban Forestry and Stormwater Plans. In the second half of the meeting, we heard from Jade Schofield from Ontario Urban Forest Council, OUFC on their latest research on synergies between Urban Forestry Management and Climate Action Plans.

Additional Resources:

 

For a copy of the slide decks, please email cap@cleanairpartnership.org