Given the high costs and the challenges of building in remote regions of the north, it is important that buildings are made to be resilient. Northern communities need mechanisms to reduce their vulnerability to climate change impacts — and this is where standards can make a real difference.
New northern standards, developed under SCC’s NISI are helping to set guidelines for building and maintaining resilient infrastructure in Canada’s north. And, because these standards are frequently updated with evolving best practices, they will remain relevant because they will evolve as our understanding of climate change, and how to deal with it, evolves.
To date, standards have been developed to help communities build in permafrost, deal with extreme weather (like high winds and heavy snow), plan community systems (like wastewater sites), and take a long term view to design with climate change and risk in mind.
Having these standard means that projects carried out by different groups at different sites – often separated by great distances – will all follow the same requirements and best practices. Because of this, SCC is helping give communities greater peace of mind that they are doing everything they can to protect their communities and infrastructure from the threat of climate change.