SEA LEVEL RISE ADAPTATION PRIMER A TOOLKIT TO BUILD ADAPTIVE CAPACITY ON CANADA’S SOUTH COASTS Prepared by The Arlington Group Planning + Architecture Inc. EBA, a Tetra Tech Company Prepared for DE Jardine Consulting British Columbia Ministry of Environment Sustainability Solutions Group Fall 2013 Sustainability Solutions De Jardine Group Groupe de Consulting Solutions pour un Développement Durable This Primer is a resource for coastal management authorities (mainly local governments) to help them identify and evaluate options for adapting to the impacts of sea level rise and associated hazards. The Primer is intended to be relevant for southern coastal regions across Canada with application to British Columbia, Quebec, and the Atlantic region. Acknowledgements This project was made possible with financial support from Natural Resources Canada’s Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Program, the Province of British Columbia, the Atlantic Climate Adaptation Solutions Association and the Adaptation to Climate Change Team at Simon Fraser University. Atlantic Climate Adaptation Solutions Association Solutions d’adaptation aux changements climatiques pour l’Atlantique THINKING OF THE WORLD ACT (Adaptation to Climate Change Team) Cover photos: Photo 1 (top): Stock photo Photo 2 (bottom far left): Dune protection consisting of sand fence with spruce boughs, Souris Causeway, P.E.I. (Photo: D. Jardine) Photo 3 (bottom middle left): 18th century mooring ring at Fortress of Louisbourg (Photo: Ambrose MacNeil) Photo 4 (bottom middle right): West Vancouver, B.C. Seawall Photo 4 (bottom middle right): Fraser River Park Vancouver, B.C. (Photo: Hay & Company Consultants Inc.) Design and layout Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ............................................................................... 6 Introduction ...................................................................................... 7 Primer Focus Area ................................................................................. 13 Framework for Decision-Making ................................................................... 21 Adaptation Tools .................................................................................. 28 Planning Tools ................................................................................ 30 1. Objectives and Policies ................................................................. 30 2. Coastal Hazard Mapping ................................................................ 32 3. Risk Management ...................................................................... 36 4. Emergency Planning and Preparedness ................................................. 39 Regulatory Tools .............................................................................. 41 1. Regulation of Land Use ................................................................. 41 2. Subdivision Regulation ................................................................. 44 3. Development Permit ................................................................... 46 4. Building Regulation .................................................................... 47 Land Use Change or Restriction Tools .......................................................... 50 1. Land Acquisition ....................................................................... 50 2. Transfer of Development Potential ...................................................... 51 3. Easements and Covenants .............................................................. 53 4. Land Trusts ............................................................................. 55 5. Foreshore Tenure ....................................................................... 57 Structural (Flood Protection Works) ............................................................ 61 1. Scour Protection ........................................................................ 61 2. Structural Elevation ..................................................................... 62 3. Dikes ................................................................................... 64 4. Other Hard Protection .................................................................. 68 5. Wet Floodproofing ..................................................................... 71 Non-Structural (Soft Armouring). 73 1. Coastal Wetland Creation or Restoration ................................................. 73 2. Dune Building or Rehabilitation ......................................................... 75 3. Beach Nourishment .................................................................... 77 Non-Local Government Adaptation Tools .......................................................... 85 The Cost of Sea Level Rise and Adaptation ......................................................... 94 Appendix A – Glossary ............................................................................ 98 Appendix B – Summary of Primer Tools ............................................................ 102 Appendix C – Legislative Matrices ................................................................. 109 Appendix D – Atlantic Canada Municipal Polices and Bylaws ....................................... 114 Appendix E – Annotated Bibliography ............................................................. 121 Bibliography ...................................................................................... 142 1 2 Executive Summary Climate change is here, increasing global loss of life and property damage as weather patterns change. We now know that with climate change comes rising seas – and that this sea level rise will dramatically affect Canada’s southern coastal communities.1 These communities will require resilience and adaptive capacity to ensure their long-term sustainability. Coastal hazards associated with sea level rise include: • Coastal inundation and reduced drainage capacity; • Coastal erosion; • Changes to coastal habitats and loss of wetlands such as salt marshes; • Reduction in coastal sea ice; and • More frequent and intense storms, storm surge and wave action. This Primer provides an introduction to past and future sea levels, an overview of four different adaptation strategies, a recommended framework for decision making and finally a total of 21 adaptation tools to support local adaptation action. The B.C. Ministry of the Environment commissioned the preparation of this Sea Level Rise Adaptation Primer for Canada’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Although this Primer was prepared in B.C., legislative provisions, policies and local government applications discussed in this Primer include B.C., southern Quebec and the Atlantic coasts of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador. Coastal communities along Hudson Bay and in the Arctic face a different set of vulnerabilities and were not considered within the context of this research. Adaptation strategies to sea level rise can be grouped as follows: Protect Accommodate Retreat Avoid Protect is a reactive strategy to protect people, property and infrastructure from sea level rise and is typically the first response considered. Protecting the coastline through structural mechanisms such as dikes, seawalls and groynes has been the traditional approach to dealing with sea level rise in many parts of the world. With increasing sea level rise and coastal vulnerability, this strategy may be prohibitively expensive and have limited long-term effectiveness in highly vulnerable locations. Accommodate is an adaptive strategy that allows continued occupation of coastal areas while changes are made to human activities and/or infrastructure to adapt to sea level rise. Accommodation can also involve retrofitting a building or making it more resilient to the consequences of sea level rise. Other accommodation measures may include liability reduction, such as a covenant indemnifying governments from the consequences of coastal hazards regardless of protection works undertaken. 1 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007). 3 Retreat or Managed Retreat refers to any strategic decision to withdraw, relocate or abandon private or public assets at risk due to sea level rise and associated coastal hazards. Retreat is an adaptive strategy to limit the use of structural protection, discourage development in areas subject to sea level rise, and plan for the eventual relocation of buildings and infrastructure to areas with no risk or lesser risk. Avoid involves ensuring new development does not take place in areas subject to coastal hazards associated with sea level rise or where the risk is low at present but will increase over time. This may involve identifying future “no build” areas within local government planning documents. A wide range of planning tools may be involved, leading to a decision to avoid development in areas subject to moderate to high risk. An avoid strategy may involve land acquisition or the transfer of development potential to areas of lower risk. These adaptation strategies are not mutually exclusive. Two or more strategies may be applied in different geographic areas by the same local government. The most appropriate strategy for a geographic area may also change over time. To implement these strategies, a wide range of adaptation tools are available. Adaptation tools included in this Primer should be considered in the context of information gathering, public