Climate Change Adaptation Resilience Training Program builds capacity and expertise in climate change adaptation

Community leaders and residents across Alberta have become more aware of the social, environmental, and economic impacts of the changing climate. In recent years, we have seen the direct and indirect effects of climate hazards that cause many impacts on communities, including its residents, businesses, property, built and natural infrastructure, and economic well-being. The floods in Calgary and High River; wildfires in Slave Lake, Fort McMurray, and Jasper; and the early snowstorm in Calgary had devastating social, environmental, psychological, and economic impacts.

The Government of Alberta recognized the need for practicing professionals within government and public services within municipalities across Alberta to have a basic awareness and understanding of climate change, so governments at all levels can effectively consider and incorporate climate change into policy, planning, and delivery of infrastructure projects.

Recognizing the importance for practicing professionals to have a good foundational knowledge of climate change, the Government of Alberta retained Associated Engineering to develop their Climate Change Adaptation Resilience Training Program. This project was funded by Natural Resources Canada’s Building Regional Adaptation Capacity and Expertise program, as well as Alberta Environment and Protected Areas.

Project Manager, Juliana Tang, tells us, "The program was targeted to professionals across multiple sectors. The core training concentrated on climate science, risk identification, risk management, economics, and communication, with a deeper dive into four focussed areas: infrastructure, community planning, watershed management, and agriculture."

Associated Engineering led this project with support from 13 subject matter experts (SME), who developed and delivered the training program. They included technical and experienced professionals, including practicing engineers, scientists, researchers, analysts, and educators from professional organizations, government, and academia. Each of the SMEs were selected for their local, national, and international expertise, bringing 15 to 30 years of experience in their respective fields.

A Technical Steering Committee was created to help guide the content development of the training program. This Steering Committee featured SMEs from four key Alberta governmental departments: Transportation, Infrastructure, Agriculture, and Municipal Affairs.

Associated Engineering facilitated carefully planned workshops and meetings to engage key people for their input and feedback. Juliana says, "The success of this program was due in part to the project management team’s ability to manage expectations, clearly identify the key objectives to avoid miscommunication and out-of-scope content, and maintain the goal of delivering basic awareness training."

Through this program, over 300 professionals across Alberta have been trained since early 2022 and over 50 new university graduates placed in climate-change adaptation-related projects. This placement program allowed young professionals to obtain valuable climate change adaptation work experience.

This work was done in collaboration with the University of Alberta for job placements. Juliana shares, "Many of these young professionals were offered opportunities to continue work in climate change adaptation and become future leaders in this field."

All of the training information, resources, and recordings are accessible online through the ClimateWest.ca website. This knowledge transfer and sharing process engages all professionals across disciplines and at multiple levels so that they are better informed during the decision-making process.

Today, this information is shared with other municipalities within and outside of Alberta.