Case Studies: Kimberley B.C.

 

Kimberley B.C. in winter.

 "Climate change is real. How it is occurring is not the issue.The effects need to be looked at and addressed."   ~ Mayor of Kimberley, Jim Ogilvie, June 2008

Kimberley was one of two communities selected to partner with CBT to pilot a year-long community learning, engagement and planning process on climate change adaptation. The city worked with the community to identify the range of potential climate change impacts they may face in the future, assess local sensitivities and develop adaptation strategies. Their project was built around three distinct phases: Learn, Share and Plan. Kimberley did not follow one specific methodology, but the CIG Guidebook was influential in their planning.

 

 

Lessons Learned

The following bullets reflect Kimberley's lessons learned about the climate change adaptation project in general. For more specific lessons and tips about particular stages of the process, please check out the "Lessons Learned" section included at the end of each stage of the process (e.g. "Get Started," "Learn about Climate Change").

  • Undertaking a climate adaptation project is an excellent way to inspire and support long term thinking, visioning and planning for a community through the lens of climate impacts and adaptation.
  • Read the Climate Adaptation Guidebook prepared by the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group.
  • Make sure that you have at least two champions/strong supporters, and preferably more–ideally you want at least one on local government staff, one on council, and a couple from the community that are connected with key stakeholders.
  • Focus on building local capacity as much as possible.
  • The CBT’s experts can give a lot of excellent background and guidance to your process – talk to them.
  • Tap into your expert advisory group often.
  • Cast your net widely in terms of local/regional expertise – you may be surprised to find out some of the resources that are right under your nose.
  • Read about the City of Keene’s process, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Municipal Infrastructure Risk Project, and the "Clean Air Partnership’s Cities Preparing for Climate Change: A Study of Six Urban Regions." 
  • Make it clear to all core participants that current climate science does not have all the answers around future local impacts, and that the science is still relatively high-level and directional at this stage. Scenarios are a useful way to transcend this gap.
  • Partnerships were key to the project’s success. CALP’s climate visioning work was enormously helpful in engaging and communicating residents and stakeholders, PCIC’s climate analysis provided important direction to the local discussions.

 

Final Report

Kimberley's final report showcases:

  • An organic, community-driven adaptation process
  • Recommended actions for adaptation
  • Key learning reflections
  • Useful background information on the community
  • Adaptation planning and local vulnerabilities

Case Study: Kimberley (pdf 282KB)

Executive Summary, June 17 2009, Kimberley Final Report (pdf 923KB)

Kimberley's Final Report (low resolution format without appendices / pdf 10MB)


An unexpected Partner: CALP Visualizations

In the fall of 2008, the University of British Columbia’s Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning (CALP) received funding to do a climate change visioning study as part of Kimberley’s adaptation project. The purpose of the study was to develop digital visualization tools to help communicate climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation scenarios to local residents and stakeholders. CALP synthesized considerable map-based (geo-spatial) information about Kimberley both now and in the future, creating an interactive tool in GoogleEarth that allows users to view different scenarios for the community using GoogleEarth’s capabilities to show landscapes in three dimensions. CALP also created information posters on Kimberley's priority issues that included two dimensional visualizations and descriptive background information.

The visualization maps are provided bellow under the headline: Resources Specifically Used in Kimberley.

For more information on Kimberley's work with CALP, see Kimberley's final report or contact Communities Adapting to Climate Change Coordinator at adaptation@cbt.org.


Cost

The project cost approximately $29,000, with $20,115 of in-kind time and $3,169 in other in-kind contributions. Note: This figure does not include CALP's work.

See attached budget and in-kind contribution tables (33.5KB)

 

Time Commitment of the City

Estimates below are based on time spent at workshops, in issue working groups and/or in steering committee meetings. Kimberley had four public workshops, four working groups that each met three times, and a Steering Committee (that included the city planner and economic development officer), which met once a month through most of the project.

  • City Planner - 10 days
  • City Operations Manager - 3 days
  • Fire Chief - 2 days
  • Mayor - 3 days
  • Councilors - 1-2 days each, depending on availability
  • Economic Development Officer - 2 days

 

Communication, Participation and Outreach Efforts

  • City news letters
  • Workshops
  • Media interviews
  • Web updates
  • Media releases
  • Presentations
  • Surveys

 

 Purcell Mountains near Kimberley, B.C.

Resources Specifically Used in Kimberley

 

PCIC Analysis for Kimberley and District of Elkford:

 

Table of Information/Data requests to AC:

Note: Kimberley and Elkford collaborated on their data requests, creating a master list and dividing up their workload and responsibility for tracking down information.

 

General Kimberley Climate Data and Other Local Statistics

 

Ecosystem Information: Forests, Pine Beetle Projections, Biodiversity, Plant Hardiness, etc.

 

Tourism & Recreation Related Resources:

 

Human Health in a Changing Climate: A Canadian Assessment of Vulnerabilities and Adaptive Capacity (Health Canada, 2008)

 

The University of British Columbia’s Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning (CALP) . CALP synthesized considerable map-based (geo-spatial) information about Kimberley both now and in the future, creating an interactive tool in GoogleEarth that allows users to view different scenarios for the community using GoogleEarth’s capabilities to show landscapes in three dimensions:

 

Click here for more useful resources from Kimberley's working groups regarding Municipal Intrastructure, Tourism, Water and Forests.