Climate change can have a significant impact on a Transportation agency’s infrastructure and operations. The City of Toronto has developed a first of its kind process and tool, which can be used by any jurisdiction to assess climatic risks and identify adaptive actions. Toronto’s Transportation Services Division (TSD) anticipates that its climate-related risks are anticipated to increase in significance in the coming decades. Decisions made today regarding capital investments, program delivery and relationships with key partners will be important in ensuring that risks are reduced and the organization’s resilience to climate change is improved. A key step for any organization in establishing an Environmental Management System and achieving environmental due diligence is to determine the level of concern associated with environmental issues including climate change by undertaking an Environmental Risk Assessment. A major component of the City of Toronto’s (the City) Climate Change Adaptation Strategy is to develop a process for identifying and assessing risk due to climate change. The City’s innovative approach to addressing the above was to develop Toronto’s Environmental Risk Assessment Process and Tool (Tool) that assesses general environmental risks, such as: regulatory requirements, impacts to the environment by City operations, as well as the effects of climate change on the delivery of services, management of infrastructure and protection of the natural environment. The Tool enables service and infrastructure providers to identify and prioritize key environmental and climate change impacts and risks, and assess the benefits of various risk mitigation or adaptive actions. The Tool has been designed in accordance with the international risk-standard ISO 31000, and incorporates insights derived through a benchmarking study analyzing existing approaches to climate risk assessment around the world, practical learned experience and stakeholder engagement. The Tool takes into account elements of ISO 14001, (the international environmental management system standard), as well as many core principles from the field of environmental auditing. The Tool is a software application that enables service and infrastructure providers to identify and prioritize key environmental and climate change impacts and risks, and to conduct a high-level evaluation of the benefits of various risk mitigation and adaption actions. The purpose of the Tool is to assist the City of Toronto in avoiding significant costs and service disruption that could harm citizens, businesses or the natural environment in Toronto. TSD conducted a pilot application of the Tool across its various business units that manage critical assets and deliver essential services. Currently, the City has Council’s approval (indemnification licensing agreement required) to share the Environmental Risk Assessment Process and Tool with other municipalities, NGOs and universities in Ontario. Given the applicability of the process and Tool, not only to Transportation but to any other operational group within a municipality and/or private sector, Toronto may pursue to expand the above sharing arrangements. A demonstration of the TSD case study provides insights to the benefits and challenges of adopting a risk-based approach to mitigation of environmental risk and climate adaptation planning. The case study will include consideration of how City staff identified risks and where adaptation actions should go ahead or be accelerated. Also, the case study will demonstrate how the Tool may lead to conclusions that more in depth investigations are necessary on specific issues to understand the vulnerabilities and determine appropriate adaptive actions.
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