Climate Change Risks and Resilience Options for Canadas Built Infrastructure

The document outlines the vulnerabilities of Canada's built infrastructure—including wastewater, stormwater, buildings, water supply, transportation, and energy/communications systems—to climate hazards such as extreme heat, permafrost degradation, and storm surges. It provides a matrix of resilience options, ranging from nature-based solutions like urban forests and salt marshes to engineering adaptations such as heat-tolerant pavement, microgrids, and the burial of electrical lines.

• Climate hazards such as extreme heat and changing precipitation patterns impact wastewater and stormwater infrastructure by concentrating influent flows, exceeding drainage systems, and causing thermal cracking and rutting. Resilience options include applying natural infrastructure solutions like "green roofs, urban forests" and reducing impervious surfaces.
• Buildings face risks from indoor temperature increases, roof collapse due to heavy snow, and foundation damage from freeze-thaw patterns. Recommended adaptations include installing "thermally reflective material" for roofs and facades, using backwater valves and sump pumps, and selecting concrete aggregates that perform better in freeze-thaw cycles.
• Water supply infrastructure is vulnerable to the rupture of water lines, flooding of treatment plants, and the cracking of earthen dams. Resilience strategies include the use of "polystyrene insulation beneath roads", the construction of seawalls and levees, and demand management.
• Transportation infrastructure, including land and marine systems, is threatened by pavement softening, the shortening of the winter ice road season, and the inundation of ports. Proposed solutions include using "heat-tolerant pavement mixtures", transforming ice roads into all-season roads, and restoring shoreline habitats such as "dunes, salt marshes".
• Energy and communications infrastructure risks include the overheating of ICT data centres, the failure of transmission towers due to permafrost thaw, and power line damage from wildfires. Resilience options include installing "microgrids to enable communities to run on secondary sources", burying electrical grids, and increasing cooling system capacity.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (n.d.). Climate Change Risks and Resilience Options for Canadas Built Infrastructure. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-07/infographic-climate-change-risks-resilience-options-canada-built-infrastructure.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Climate Change Risks and Resilience Options for Canadas Built Infrastructure. n.d. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-07/infographic-climate-change-risks-resilience-options-canada-built-infrastructure.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Climate Change Risks and Resilience Options for Canadas Built Infrastructure |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-07/infographic-climate-change-risks-resilience-options-canada-built-infrastructure.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopmentndclimate, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Climate Change Risks and Resilience Options for Canadas Built Infrastructure}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-07/infographic-climate-change-risks-resilience-options-canada-built-infrastructure.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }