Toronto’s first resilience strategy provides clear steps for Toronto to survive, adapt and thrive in the face of the challenges facing the city due to inequality and climate change.
The strategy comes from an inclusive, collaborative process that reviewed resiliency successes to-date across the city, identified current gaps and recommended opportunities to make neighborhoods and communities in Toronto more resilient. Six challenges were identified – equity, climate and environment, civic engagement, communities and neighborhood, housing and mobility.
The strategy emphasizes climate change resilience and the need to advance green and blue infrastructure systems. There is great opportunity for the city to integrate natural elements such as bioswales, forests, wetlands, and other green infrastructure projects that require less investment than traditional grey to combat many of the hazards of climate change including flooding and heat.
The next steps in implementing green infrastructure to address resilience issues include prioritizing Toronto’s Tree Planting Strategy, the Strategic Forest Management Plan, the Parkland Strategy, and the Ravine Strategy to enhance urban forests, finding opportunities for neighborhood green infrastructure projects and establishing a 2020 framework for advancing blue and green infrastructure. To learn more about the resilience strategy, you can find the entire report here, or visit the pop up exhibit.