Building a Climate-Resilient City: Electricity and information and communication technology infrastructure

The document argues that conventional infrastructure design standards must be strengthened to account for climate change, specifically noting that a warming climate increases cooling demands and exposes electricity grids to shocks like ice storms and droughts. It identifies modular and distributed renewable energy generation and storage as key to resilience. For ICT, the brief suggests increasing resilience through redundant landlines, ISP diversity, emergency roaming, and cell phone micro-charging backup systems. The work was developed for the cities of Edmonton and Calgary, focusing on the principles of robustness, redundancy, and resourcefulness.

• Climate change stresses the electricity grid through increased cooling demand and exposure to extreme weather events such as tornados, droughts, and ice storms.
• To address climate impacts, conventional infrastructure design standards require strengthening, with the PIEVC protocol cited as a proven Canadian methodology. Additionally, modular and distributed renewable energy generation and storage technologies enhance resilience to climate shocks.
• While ICT is inherently resilient due to its decentralized and modular nature, its climate resilience can be further improved through ISP diversity, redundant landlines, emergency roaming, and cell phone micro-charging backup systems.

APA

Venema,, J. T. D. (2017). Building a Climate-Resilient City: Electricity and information and communication technology infrastructure. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/publications/brief/building-climate-resilient-city-electricity-and-information-and-communication

Chicago

Venema,, Jennifer Temmer,Henry David. Building a Climate-Resilient City: Electricity and information and communication technology infrastructure. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2017. https://www.iisd.org/publications/brief/building-climate-resilient-city-electricity-and-information-and-communication.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Venema, |first1=Jennifer Temmer,Henry David |title=Building a Climate-Resilient City: Electricity and information and communication technology infrastructure |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=24 April 2017 |url=https://www.iisd.org/publications/brief/building-climate-resilient-city-electricity-and-information-and-communication |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{venema2017building, author = {Venema,, Jennifer Temmer,Henry David}, title = {{Building a Climate-Resilient City: Electricity and information and communication technology infrastructure}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2017}, month = apr, url = {https://www.iisd.org/publications/brief/building-climate-resilient-city-electricity-and-information-and-communication}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }