Severe weather and climate uncertainty represent risks to public safety in Canada and around the world, as well as to the safety of engineered systems and the services they provide. In this context, an increasing number of public agencies and organizations that provide public services address climate change adaptation as part of their primary mandate—protecting the public interest, which includes life, health, property, economy, culture and the environment.

The impacts of severe weather add to the existing stresses on infrastructure and the services it provides. In addition to factors that reduce the capacity and performance of these assets (e.g. age, increased demand, material weathering, design and construction inadequacies, lack of maintenance, or extension of service life beyond design),the increased intensity of weather events can produce an incremental load that can cause asset failure.

Infrastructure vulnerability and risk assessments are the foundations to ensure climate change is considered in engineering design, operations and maintenance of community infrastructure, buildings, and facilities. Taking the time to identify the services and related assets that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, provides opportunities for improved planning and the development of cost-effective solutions to increase resiliency of infrastructure assets to these new weather patterns.

This report presents the results of the Climate Risk Assessment (CRA) study conducted for the Oneida Nation of the Thames housing assets using the First Nations PIEVC Protocol, a methodology adapted from Engineers Canada’s Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee (PIEVC) Engineering Protocol.