The Port of Vancouver retained a team of Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, EcoPlan International, and Associated Engineering to complete an assessment of climate change vulnerabilities and adaptation opportunities.
Hazards were assessed at several scales (local, regional, and global) in terms of their impacts on the Port’s operations, business, and infrastructure. Associated reviewed the Port’s GIS data, attended meetings and workshops, assisted with creating a “roadmap” to direct the Port’s future efforts in adapting to climate change. We also produced an “infrastructure-at-risk checklist” of the Port’s facilities, which listed different types of infrastructure managed by the Port and its tenants, potential risks to the infrastructure due to combined flooding from both sea level rise and extreme weather events, identified operational challenges/limitations specific to each type of infrastructure, and the infrastructure’s relative adaptive capacity.
Both direct (immediate impact as a direct result of flooding) and indirect (other impacts as a result of supply chain disruption, and loss of reputation, perception) risks were evaluated.