[VISION & OVERVIEW]

Collaborative action is needed towards building regional resilience in the face of increased climate risk. In order to prepare for extreme storm events and flooding due to rapid environmental change, our Region must take a coordinated approach across sectors and scales toward implementing a strategic and holistic framework for dealing with our most precious, yet threatening resource: water. Presented here is a conceptual framework derived from best practices across the globe, with special consideration of the unique aspects of Durham’s landscape. At the core of this approach is the development of an adaptive, research-based regional vision to help guide a collaborative effort in managing Durham’s water resources.

The goal of the Strategic Water Framework (SWF) is to help align and incentivize ongoing programs and development in the region towards a shared responsibility for the landscape’s water resources. Simply, the SWF helps to integrate water and soil into the regional spatial planning and development processes, towards ensuring a healthy and future-proof Durham. The SWF integrates leading water resource management standards with ongoing regional efforts, helps coordinate collaboration around water issues, supports the development of critical water research, and promotes flood-mitigating green infrastructure. The SWF leverages four strategic focus areas towards the production of a water-based adaptive vision (WAV) for the region.

Water-based Adaptive Vision (WAV): Research Integration & Water Resource Simulation

The SWF is guided by a water-based adaptive vision for the region, which incorporates ongoing efforts from four core focus areas: public engagement, spatial policy + research, infrastructure + development, and regional economy. The WAV relies on monitoring, analysis and reporting of critical water research collected through the aforementioned focus areas, to enable more robust modeling and simulation of water resources. This enables a better understanding of how directing soil and water movement contributes to flood prevention, and allows us to test economically and environmentally feasible mitigation policies and research-based design interventions through modeled simulations. Most importantly, an adaptive model enables the region to make better informed decisions on the complex issue of water resource and flood management, providing more and more refined simulation and insight as time goes on.

This framework enables fluid research collaboration across sectors, scales and strategic initiatives, towards collectively championing a connected spatial network that naturally mitigates flooding and restores hydrological responses within the region and its watersheds. The SWF & WAV welcomes collaboration with regional and international experts, while ensuring open public dialogue and stakeholder engagement, ongoing science-based research and analysis, and economically viable and environmentally regenerative spatial policy. The SWF works to ensure that green infrastructure is developed in synergy with gray infrastructure and existing natural landscapes to provide the most resilient and adaptive approach to water resource and flood management.

A Regional Blue Economy: Water Resource Economic Impact Analysis

Regional departments and stakeholders should work together to develop a stronger understanding of the economic impact of Durham’s local water resources and increased climate and flood risk. Building upon insights from the Valuing Water Initiative, we must work to better understand the multiple values of water and raise public awareness to enable more inclusive participation, and towards securing investment in much needed green infrastructure. The 2023 Dutch flood management strategy has placed strong emphasis on innovation, arguing that faster action is needed in the face of climate change and predicting that “ tried and tested” solutions will no longer suffice by 2050. The region must work to incorporate water resilience and climate adaptation in investment agendas and proposals.

A Community of River Valleys and Lakes: Public Research & Engagement

Urban flood management necessarily requires community involvement and education to build towards a culture where living with the water is better understood and embraced. The region should work with other municipal departments and public stakeholders to develop and disseminate critical research related to water resources, and flood prevention and preparation for vulnerable areas.

Water and Soil-based Planning: Spatial Policy & Research Repository

The idea of water and soil-based spatial planning is not a new one. It is time for Durham to take the lead on spatial planning that considers natural systems first and foremost. This is the only reasonable way to ensure a future landscape that is adaptive to environmental change. Municipal planning departments (e.g. Brock, Uxbridge, Scugog, Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa and Clarington) and governing conservation authorities should work closely together with the region to understand, pilot, and implement water and soil-based policy that ensures and incentivizes new green infrastructure development in critical investment areas identified by WAV. Durham Region’s SWF would present an opportunity to lead in local water management across five watersheds, and thus an especially strong network should be established and maintained between the SWF and all of Durham’s conservation authorities (e.g. Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority, Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority and Kawartha Conservation Authority).

Champion Green Infrastructure: Infrastructure & Land Development Projects

The SWF will work to support the development of flood mitigating green infrastructure across the regional landscape, identifying opportunities for investment alongside ongoing and planned gray infrastructure development, and significant capital projects. This has proven to be an effective approach for increasing flood resilience by recreating more natural hydrological responses across regional landscapes, while providing a multitude of benefits to the environment and community. The development of green infrastructure should balance scales, applications, and feasibility, and must be a part of a larger strategic framework that integrates water resources and natural processes in order to function as effectively as possible. The SWF steering committee should work towards a spatial inventory and assessment of Green Infrastructure pilot project opportunities in vulnerable urban areas.

Green infrastructures that can be implemented at the scale of a building or site should be incentivized at the municipal level, considering pilot programs to reduce fees, provide financial incentives, and/or permitting rebates for the construction or application of new green infrastructure like rain gardens, porous driveways, storm-water ponds, detention basins, rain barrels, small bio-swales and green roofs in critical areas. Larger-scale opportunities for green infrastructure should be explored in conjunction with ongoing gray infrastructure and park development with conservation authorities and municipal planning departments. This would include exploring opportunities for storm-water ponds, roadside bio-swales, and eco-corridors that help connect green infrastructure to broader natural landscapes and processes.

[NEXT STEPS]

Develop the SWF/WAV steering committee with representation from key external partners, stakeholders and Regional departments and initiatives including: Works, Planning & Economic Development, Finance, Corporate Communications Office, Strategic Initiatives, and Emergency Management.

Establish a preliminary research mandate covering key topics including: Economic and Inventory Analysis,

Data collection and Mapping, Simulation, flood/storm event capacity and intervention scenarios

Reach out to relevant external partners to bring them on board in the early stages of the SWF including: municipal planning departments, conservation authorities, international water partnerships and local businesses and community groups

Assess resources for the development of WAV including: Regional/Municipal Planners(s), Financial Analyst(s), Data Scientist(s), Urban Designer(s), Researchers in Environment/Hydrology/Hydro-geology

Outline a five year plan and 2050 vision, including an understanding of local water resources and economy, and internal and external partner involvement, with consideration for short and long-term piloting and program opportunities

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