Climate Change Adaptation

Since 2014, ECW has worked with southwestern New Brunswick communities to increase the region's resilience to climate change. To effectively adapt to climate change, the community must consider the impact of deluge rain events, sea level rise, ocean acidification, and the economic consequence of a changing marine environment.  

Community working groups and technical committees were established to identify vulnerabilities, assess risks, and identify adaptive actions. The results of these projects inform adaptation planning that informs planning work at the regional service commission and in the region's municipalities. ECW has developed methods for displaying data and engaging the public, working to increase local knowledge of the anticipated impacts with hope that adaptive actions are strengthened and as a result, resilience has increased.

ECW has officially completed 5 municipal climate adaptation plans for each Charlotte County municipality and 1 regional climate adaptation plan that encompasses all of southwestern New Brunswick. Within these plans there are a series of policy and planning recommendations as well as adaptive actions that pertain to infrastructure, such as roadways, energy and buildings, levels of service, like drinking water and recreational services and socioeconomic vulnerabilities to the communities. These plans were created in consultation with the Southwest New Brunswick Service Commission, municipal staff and councilors, NB Power, the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, the Department of Environment and Local Government, the Regional Emergency Measures Organization and more.

Regional Climate Adaptation Plan

The Southwest New Brunswick Regional Climate Adaptation Plan was published in 2019. ECW worked in partnership with the SNBSC, Local Service District representatives and local municipalities to continue to build on pre-existing adaptation measures to help communities and service providers to anticipate, address and prepare for present and future climate change challenges. Included in the Regional Climate Adaptation Plan are municipally focused plans for the following municipalities:

Blacks Harbour, Grand Manan, Saint Andrews, St. George, and St. Stephen.

Fisheries climate adaptation & ecosystem change

ECW, in partnership with Fundy North Fishermen Association and Grand Manan Fishermen Association, is conducting a Fisheries Climate Vulnerability Assessment to identify climate risks and vulnerabilities to commonly fished species in the outer Bay of Fundy.

Using the report Species Distribution Model Projects into the Southern Bay of Fundy produced by Dr. Kathy Mills at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in 2020, ECW created several data visualizations to demonstrate ecosystem change in our region by the year 2050.

We are presently conducting surveys and in-depth interviews with fishers to determine risk perception, willingness to change, and adaptive strategies within the industry. This work is being supported by the Department of Environment and Local Government (DELG) and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) .

Climate change and species at risk

In 2021, ECW received funding from the Department of Natural Resources and Development (DERD) to tackle Action #90 in the New Brunswick Climate Change Action Plan.

Action #90 states ‘while balancing the economy and the environment, identify and focus on the most climate-vulnerable species, habitats, and landscapes as targets for adaptation actions and manage for landscape connectivity to allow for species migration.’

Following the methodology from the Department of Environment in Maine, ECW is working with DERD to conduct a climate change vulnerability assessment of NB flora, fauna, and habitats using the current projections of climate change variables and expert knowledge of species and ecosystems.

Augmented Reality App

Vulnerability Assessments

The Community Vulnerability Assessment of Climate Change and Variability Impacts in Charlotte County, NB was published in 2014. 

Each municipality had a volunteer working group that was educated about climate change and its anticipated effects and then asked to share their experiences as well as their concerns for the future.

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) maps were modeled using data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and depth to water table information, to create climate change scenarios for each municipality, allowing working group members to visualize potential vulnerable areas.

Vulnerabilities were identified on satellite maps and prioritized, to identify which pose the greatest risks. The results were then communicated to municipal and provincial governments, and were shared with other stakeholders throughout NB and across Canada. 

Our climate change work has been made possible by the financial support of Environment Canada’s Atlantic Ecosystem Initiatives, New Brunswick’s Environmental Trust Fund, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the Intact Foundation.

This work was completed with the support of the project’s five municipal councils. The work also depended on the generous contributions of our volunteer municipal working groups, as well as Jeff Hoyt, the Director of Climate Change Adaptation for the Climate Change Secretariat with the New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government; Dr. James I. MacLellan, the Director for the Centre for Research and Innovation in Sustainability at the University of New Brunswick; Dr. Nicole Klenk,  Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and Adjunct Professor at the University of New Brunswick; and Tanya Anderson from the St. Croix Estuary Project.

Special thanks to Kim Reeder, whose vision as the Program Coordinator for the St. Croix Estuary Project was instrumental throughout the process, and also to ECW staff members Kristie Signer, who oversaw and compiled the initial vulnerability assessment. Special thanks to Danielle St. Louis who completed the first adaptation plans in 2016 and to Briana Cowie and Lee Penney who finalized the Regional Climate Adaptation Plan in 2020. The data work was supported by Real Daigle and Dr. Paul Arp at UNB.