{"id":50834,"date":"2018-05-03T16:18:03","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T20:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=50834"},"modified":"2018-11-06T11:18:45","modified_gmt":"2018-11-06T16:18:45","slug":"brock-lincoln-living-lab-research-project-to-examine-lake-ontario-shoreline-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/05\/brock-lincoln-living-lab-research-project-to-examine-lake-ontario-shoreline-flooding\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock research project to examine Lake Ontario shoreline flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"

The flooding of coastal communities along Lake Ontario last year caused major damage and made people realize that century floods aren\u2019t nearly as rare as the name implies.<\/p>\n

A new research collaboration between Brock University and the Town of Lincoln is aimed at helping the community understand how to deal with the impacts of climate and environmental changes and examining potential avenues of solutions for future development along the shore. It follows on the heals of the Brock-Lincoln Living Lab partnership announced in October 2017.<\/p>\n

Brock UNESCO Chair in Community Sustainability Liette Vasseur is leading the three-year research study for the Ontario component of a larger project by Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Rimouski, which is examining how various coastal communities can deal with and share ideas on the impacts of climate and environmental changes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Brock UNESCO Chair in Community Sustainability Liette Vasseur<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cCommunities are becoming more and more exposed to different hazards,\u201d said Vasseur, who has been involved in similar research initiatives in other communities in Atlantic Canada and Ecuador. \u201cWith climate change, these types of events are coming faster and more often.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project has received $280,000 in funding from the Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR), with additional support from the Town of Lincoln and Brock. MEOPAR is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government as a National Centre of Excellence that supports research and trains students in the area of marine risk and resilience.<\/p>\n

Lincoln suffered around $1 million in damage as a result of back-to-back spring storms in 2017 that caused massive flooding from Lake Ontario. The storms led to the Town\u2019s first-ever voluntary evacuation notice for residents living near the Lake Ontario shoreline, and caused significant damage to Charles Daley Park and sewer systems in Jordan Station and Campden.<\/p>\n

Vasseur said climate change scenarios over the next decade are projecting continuous sea level rise and increases in extreme weather events. This will amplify the severity and frequency of flooding in coastal communities like Lincoln, which is continually growing with more people living near the Lake Ontario waterfront.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were always talking about 100-year events. Now it\u2019s more like one every five years,\u201d she said. \u201cIt shows that we need to be more prepared. When we\u2019re planning things like residential developments, we need to plan in a way that we\u2019re going to survive with these types of events.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Town of Lincoln, the research will provide crucial information about current and future risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2017, Lincoln experienced the real and harsh effects of severe weather on critical infrastructure in our community,\u201d said Lincoln CAO Mike Kirkopoulos. \u201cAs another benefit of the Brock-Lincoln Living Lab, this research is grassroots to our community, helping us better understand the\u00a0conditions for collective ownership of adapting to climate change as an organization and community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vasseur said the research team will include a postdoctoral fellow and a master\u2019s student, who will collect data in Lincoln, and share information and ideas with other researchers and communities along the St. Lawrence Seaway.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a very good learning experience for the students, while helping the communities at the same time,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that by the end, the data we\u2019re going to get can be used by communities all along the coastline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lincoln Mayor Sandra Easton said municipalities like hers are learning that more frequent smaller floods \u2014 not just rare major flooding events \u2014 can have a big impact on resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change and the impact on municipal infrastructure is top of mind for our council,\u201d Easton said. \u201cWith the growing municipal infrastructure funding gap, municipalities have a responsibility for long-term planning and mitigation of the effects of climate change. This research is critical for council to understand how we can better identify actions toward\u00a0climate change adaptation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The flooding of coastal communities along Lake Ontario last year caused major damage and made people realize that century floods aren\u2019t nearly as rare as the name implies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":50835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4052,188,55,41,1,4,5],"tags":[5821,3231,6176,6590,4928],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50834"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54239,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50834\/revisions\/54239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}