Local Climate Change Adaptation Planning in Manitoba

The review of 30 local plans in Manitoba reveals a significant gap in explicit climate change adaptation planning. Only seven plans explicitly considered adaptation, with the majority of documents failing to reference specific climate projections or establish dedicated adaptation actions. While flood risks are universally acknowledged, drought and other climate-related hazards receive minimal attention. The report recommends that the Province of Manitoba integrate adaptation considerations into planning templates and collaborate with climate service centres to provide municipalities with local projection data.

• Out of 30 reviewed plans, only seven explicitly considered climate change adaptation through the identification of risks, policies, or actions.
• Only two plans—the Gillam Development Plan and the Carrot-Saskatchewan River watershed plan—highlighted general climate trends and identified specific biophysical risks and vulnerabilities, though neither used specific climate projection data or cited sources.
• Drought risks are severely underrepresented in development and emergency plans, whereas all five integrated watershed management plans addressed them.
• The Carrot-Saskatchewan River Integrated Watershed Management Plan provided the most comprehensive adaptation analysis, covering flooding, drought, extreme weather, wildfires, and disease pressure.
• There is a trend where newer plans are more likely to consider climate change adaptation, with the average completion year for plans that did so being 2012, compared to 2010 for those that did not.
• Current flood protection standards in development plans, often based on 1-in-100-year or 1-in-200-year historical data, may be unreliable as climate change alters flood frequency and magnitude.
• No reviewed plans committed to specific actions aimed at better understanding the biophysical risks or socioeconomic and ecological vulnerabilities caused by climate change.

APA

Goertzen, S. (2019). Local Climate Change Adaptation Planning in Manitoba. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/climate-change-adaptation-planning-manitoba.pdf

Chicago

Goertzen, Sean. Local Climate Change Adaptation Planning in Manitoba. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2019. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/climate-change-adaptation-planning-manitoba.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Goertzen |first1=Sean |title=Local Climate Change Adaptation Planning in Manitoba |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=January 2019 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/climate-change-adaptation-planning-manitoba.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{goertzen2019local, author = {Goertzen, Sean}, title = {{Local Climate Change Adaptation Planning in Manitoba}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2019}, month = jan, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/climate-change-adaptation-planning-manitoba.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }