Tsleil-Waututh Nation Community Climate Resilience Plan

Project Highlights

Tsleil-Waututh Nation is a regional leader in environmental stewardship and is actively working to enhance the health of ecological systems in Burrard Inlet, which are intricately linked with the health and wellbeing of Tsleil-Waututh People.

KWL was retained by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation to support the development of a Community Climate Change Resilience Plan (CCCRP) to build the Nation’s resilience to climate change.  The project is being conducted by an in-house interdisciplinary team including planners, community engagement specialists, biologists, water resources engineers, coastal engineers, and geoscientists.

The project involves two phases of work:

PHASE 1 – CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT (SPRING 2018 – FALL 2019)

Detailed hazard and vulnerability assessment of potential impacts from climate change hazards on the community.  The vulnerability used a values-based approach to assess how each climate change hazard might affect aspects of the community that members care most about.

• Hazard assessment involved modelling, site investigation, and literature review of 13 different climate change hazards, including coastal and creek flooding, erosion, changing intertidal area, and wildfire.
• Vulnerability assessment assessed the consequence of climate impacts across 6 sectors, including land/real estate, ecological systems, infrastructure, cultural and community health, and economic development.

The vulnerability assessment produced a prioritized list of the Nation’s highest vulnerabilities as a starting point for defining priority actions in the CCCRP.

PHASE 2 – COMMUNITY CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENCE PLAN (FALL 2019 – SPRING 2020)

The CCCRP will be a community document outlining specific actions to build the Nation’s resilience to climate change over the next 10 years.

The CCCRP sets a vision and goals for a climate resilient community and outlines a roadmap for implementing the Nation’s highest priority projects.

Input from Tsleil-Waututh Nation community members and staff has played a critical role throughout the project to ensure the CCCRP builds on the many environmental stewardship initiatives the Nation is already leading.

TEAM MEMBERS:

Patrick Lilley, R.P.Bio. is a professional biologist with 13 years of experience in the environmental sector, nine as an environmental consultant.  He has a Master’s degree in ecology and a strong background in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem planning and management.  Patrick has a wealth of expertise in environmental consulting including baseline assessments, permitting and approvals, monitoring, planning and policy development, and habitat restoration.
Contact: plilley@kwl.ca 1-604-293-3121