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Reid Southwick
Telegraph-Journal

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SAINT JOHN - A city planner is developing a strategy that will help a rural Atlantic Canadian community prepare for extreme weather linked to climate change. And her work will likely influence Saint John's new municipal plan.

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Sarah Herring

Sarah Herring is working with a planner from Dalhousie University in Halifax to draft a climate change adaptation plan for Glenburnie-Birchy Head-Shoal Brook, a community on Newfoundland's western coast.

The two are among eight planners selected by the Canadian Institute of Planners to develop adaptation plans for four rural Atlantic Canadian areas.

In groups of two, the planners will visit the rural areas four times over the next year to identify their exposure to extreme weather and develop measures to mitigate the risks.

"For places that are looking at potential changes in sea level rise, it might be something like changing their zoning to create more of a buffer between the water's edge and where buildings can be constructed," said Herring, who will carry out the project outside of her regular working hours.

"For other places, it may be taking a careful look at where you put town infrastructure so it's not vulnerable. For instance, if you've got a sewage treatment plant, you don't really want it disconnected from the rest of your community, say, by a river where bridges might be taken out."

Once all the work is complete, the group will match their findings with those gleaned from a similar study conducted in Nunavut last year. The planners from both studies will draft a guide on how to develop climate change adaptation plans for rural communities.

But Herring sees much broader benefits. She said she will bring all the knowledge, experience and contacts she collects during this process and use it when helping city staff and consultants develop Saint John's municipal plan, an ongoing project that is expected to take up to two years.

Herring's expertise will likely be welcome in a city that has seen major storms flood homes, streets and even properties that had never flooded before.

"A lot of what we have to do in planning is making sure we're looking ahead to the future so we want to keep people out of harm's way," said Ken Forrest, commissioner of the city's planning and development department.

"As the climate changes, we have to change our planning regulations to make sure that we're keeping people away from erosion, changing sea levels, places of increasing storm severity, those kinds of things."

Herring said scientists can predict where extreme weather is most likely to hit - and planners can prepare those areas for the storm ahead.

"We can look at the science to predict what kind of changes in storm surges and what kind of changes in sea level we're going to see and then make the planning decisions to minimize the impacts from that or adapt," Herring said.

"Science can tell us this is inevitable or this is very probable and then we can make the changes in land-use legislation or the way we do things so we're less vulnerable."

The Atlantic Canadian planning project is funded by Natural Resources Canada, in partnership with the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Atlantic Planners Institute.