Improved infrastructure management key in an era of climate change

While the evidence of climate change is everywhere, the impact of these changes on our infrastructure can be less obvious than the disruption to our daily lives. Yet the impacts are there, and climate change is becoming an increasing threat to our aging infrastructure. To cope with these threats, all levels of government must be prepared to invest, not only in new infrastructure, but also into better management and administration of the infrastructure that we already have. The 2019 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card (CIRC) provided an assessment of the state of Canada’s core public infrastructure across all major asset categories: roads and bridges; public transit; culture, recreation, and sport facilities; potable water, wastewater, and stormwater systems; and solid waste. It concluded that our infrastructure is at risk with uncomfortably high proportions of it being in the “poor” or “fair” categories. Although this may have initially been due to deferred maintenance strategies used to stretch limited funds, climate change is exacerbating the situation and should concern all Canadians. To change course, Canada’s public infrastructure will require significant attention and investment in the coming decades or it will fail. To this end, Infrastructure Canada released a report entitled Building Pathways to 2050: Moving Forward on the National Infrastructure Assessment that highlighted key recommendations to assessing our national infrastructure. Civil engineers play a critical role in creating the infrastructure that underpin our communities. We use data and our collective knowledge to advocate on behalf of Canadians for the critical infrastructure we need to maintain our desired quality of life. The Canadian Society for Civil Engineers (CSCE) membership includes infrastructure professionals from all provinces and territories in Canada and from private, public, and academic sectors of the industry. Our members collaborate in the pursuit of building sustainable and healthy communities and have been intimately involved with facilitating infrastructure planning, co-ordinating between government and industry, and creating infrastructure solutions. The CSCE advocates for practical approaches for the way forward. For instance, government should champion an approach to asset management that is based on the delivery of services and performance of infrastructure assets, rather than focusing on the infrastructure condition or age. Asset management practices in Canada are generally in their infancy and guidance and research is needed to ensure communities understand, quantify, and communicate the cost of providing their infrastructure. Governments can facilitate better management practices across jurisdictions and support infrastructure owners by standardizing management practices. Nationally, there has been good progress assessing the state of the infrastructure. The CIRC and Canadian Core Public Infrastructure Survey (CCPIS) are great examples of developing a common approach. This is needed throughout the spectrum of infrastructure development and management. There is also a need for improved communication and co-ordination among levels of government and a recognition that there exists a huge difference in scale among the players in the provision and management of infrastructure in Canada. We recognize the efforts of non-governmental organizations, such as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, to facilitate the transfer of knowledge among the municipalities. However, we have infrastructure providers ranging from remote towns and small villages to major cities and governments that need similar help. Many of the above issues exist with or without climate change. The addition of climate change into our discussion brings a new and sometimes urgent aspect to the discussion. Climate change is introducing new elements into the discussion of factors that challenge existing facilities and design practices that were not previously considered. Issues like melting permafrost, rising sea levels, and the quantification of 100-year weather events used in the design of infrastructure must be addressed, designed for, constructed, and managed. These elements singularly and in combination must be understood and accommodated. Members of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering have been helping to solve Canada’s infrastructure problems for more than 100 years and will work with governments and our partners to solve them in the future. Dr. Brenda McCabe is professor emerita from Civil and Mineral Engineering at the University of Toronto and president of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE). J. David Innes is a civil engineer and CSCE’s executive director. The Hill Times

Improved infrastructure management key in an era of climate change

Climate change is introducing new elements into the discussion of factors that challenge existing facilities and design practices that were not previously considered.

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Improved infrastructure management key in an era of climate change

Climate change is introducing new elements into the discussion of factors that challenge existing facilities and design practices that were not previously considered.

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