A Municipal Perspective on the Value of Natural Infrastructure

There has been great progress in ecosystem services assessments and natural capital accounting. However, what evidence, tools, and processes do Canadian municipalities need as owners and managers of 60% of Canada’s infrastructure to recognize the value of natural infrastructure for future long-term resilience of our communities and evaluate it alongside traditional grey options?

During the webinar, our panelists will showcase examples of the return on investment for natural infrastructure projects and discuss options for cost recovery, including specific project examples from Canadian municipalities such as the floodplain naturalization work done by the City of Grand Forks.

Our Speakers

Graham Watt is a land use, infrastructure, and environmental planner with coordination and leadership roles in land use and watershed planning projects, emergency management programs, community-led disaster recovery, natural asset management, and long-range community planning. He is currently the Manager of Strategic Initiatives / Flood Recovery for the City of Grand Forks, where he leads flood risk reduction and non-structural flood mitigation projects as well as long-range planning initiatives and capital project planning. Previously, he was Senior Planner with the City of Grand Forks, Project Coordinator for the Kettle River Watershed Management Plan with the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, and Basin Planner with the North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance. Graham is also a director with the Grand Forks Search and Rescue Society and is active in the training program and winter rescue team.

Robb Lukes is the Associate Director of the City of Vancouver Green Infrastructure Implementation Branch where he leads the program to implement green infrastructure in the right-of-way and other public spaces. He has 20 years of experience in stormwater management policy, planning, design, and construction in the US and Canada. He has  previously worked on green infrastructure projects and programs in Washington D.C., Toronto, and New York City.

Michail Kapetanakis is a research analyst for the Infrastructure team in the Economic Law and Policy Program at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. He has over 5 years of cross-sectoral experience in sustainability consulting and economic analysis for transport, cities and environmental projects.

Michail works on applying the Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) methodology to sustainable transport projects and policies in countries including India, Indonesia, Colombia, Senegal and Kazakhstan, working with NGOs and local partners and stakeholders. He also works with the Nature-Based Infrastructure (NBI) Global Resource Centre, helping to apply the SAVi methodology to NBI projects across the world, through modelling, writing and data sourcing for reports.

Our Moderator

Elizabeth (Liz) Shearer is a Network Coordinator for Climate West and holds a Masters in Business Administration and a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Winnipeg. She worked most recently as the Executive Assistant to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change for the Province of Manitoba, where she assisted in standing up the new Minister’s Office and connecting with a wide network of stakeholders in their first year. Previously she was the Manitoba Organizer for the Canadian Federation of Students, a bilingual organization, and the Sustainable Transportation Coordinator for the Green Action Centre.

Liz has been part of many campaigns and initiatives that organize stakeholder groups on important issues within the environmental sector, arts, labour, student movement and with political parties. She enjoys travelling, photography, taking in live music and spending time with her husband and young daughter. Liz is based on Treaty 1 Territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Resources:

• From Disaster to Resilience: Grand Forks’ Transformation Through Floodplain Naturalization (Natural Assets Initiative)
• Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) Report on Pelly's Lake and Stephenfield Reservoir, Manitoba (IISD)
• Financing for Natural Infrastructure Projects (IISD)
• Estimate of Natural Infrastructure Public Grant Funding in Canada and in the Canadian Prairies  (IISD)
• Beyond Climate Data: Integrating Socio-Economic and Ecological Insights for Effective Adaptation Planning (ClimateWest)
• City of Vancouver Green Infrastructure Website: Rain City Strategy, Standard Details, Project Factsheets, Biannual GI Monitoring Reports (City of Vancouver)
• CVC Grey to Green Retrofit Guides (CVC)
• GSI Impact Hub
• A Scan of Natural Infrastructure Approaches: Bright spots from the City of Nelson, Halifax Region Municipality, and EPCOR (IISD)
• The cost-effectiveness of nature-based solutions for reducing disaster risk (Nature-based Solutions Initiative)
• Natural Infrastructure for Water Solutions (NIWS)

Thanks to our webinar series partner:

Funded in part by: