On May 16 and 17, an Expert Forum was held in Vancouver, British Columbia focused on climate change and coastal transportation infrastructure.
This Expert Forum was hosted by MEOPAR in partnership with the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction and Westac.
The Canadian Coastal Resilience Forum (CCRF)’s coordinator Andrea Minano participated in this event representing the CCRF team and its efforts, including the CCRF’s upcoming workshop in Halifax.
The Expert Forum was held at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in Vancouver
Speakers at this event came from diverse backgrounds. Representatives from the Port of Vancouver, Vancouver International Airport, municipal governments and others shared how climate change affects them and how their organizations are addressing these environmental threats.
For example, the Vancouver International Airport has developed a climate change adaptation plan in recent years. They are planning to build additional protections and barriers to prevent rising sea levels from disrupting airport operations.
Speakers also identified issues that arise when supply chains are interrupted. Rural communities, for example, were identified as being dependent on supplies that come from outside of the community, such as oil, food and medicine. Road washouts can interrupt the delivery of goods to remote communities and create hazardous situations for residents, particularly in the aftermath of a natural disaster.
Understanding the connections between those providing and transporting goods, and those receiving these goods helps governments draft plans for minimizing the negative consequences that damaged infrastructure and business interruptions can have on communities.
The event was well-attended, and several discussions followed the presentations, including some on the need for continued collaboration between organizations (e.g., information and data-sharing), as well as the need for a communications plan when research projects are conducted to make research findings more useful and accessible to decision-makers and policymakers.
CCRF poster (PDF) that was featured at the Expert Forum.