Sustainable management of water levels and flows

Climate change affects the St. Lawrence ecosystem as much as its commercial potential. During this phase of SLAP, the Climate Change Coordination Committee was set up. This committee brings together stakeholders from various levels of government and civil society to promote the sharing of knowledge and, ultimately, the effectiveness of action in this area. The Committee examines the uses of the river from the perspective of vulnerability to climate change and promotes the sharing of information among key players.

A series of three webinars, entitled The St. Lawrence in a Time of Climate Change, was attended by nearly 200 participants from various federal and provincial departments, Ouranos, ZIPs and regional county municipalities (RCMs). It was an opportunity to share knowledge and issues related to the river in a climate change context and to facilitate the implementation of appropriate adaptation solutions.

The project will continue in 2021-2026 under the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and will report directly to the Agreement Steering Committee as its activities are cross-cutting within SLAP. The committee will have two roles:

1. Act as an advisor to the monitoring committees and working groups to ensure that climate change is taken into account in a cross-cutting manner in SLAP projects.
2. Disseminate knowledge and best practices among stakeholders in the area of climate change adaptation for the St. Lawrence, notably through webinars.

This project seeks to characterize changes in water flows in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence system based on climate change scenarios developed for various spatial and temporal levels.

Read the backgrounder for this project.

The goal of this project is to achieve more effective response planning and management of problems (e.g., ice jams, ice break-up, flooding, etc.) relating to ice formation on rivers in selected hydrological regions in Quebec. Monitoring indicators will be designed in this regard to support the prediction of hydrological natural disasters in the Chaudière River and Montréal archipelago through the processing of images collected using the RADARSAT-2 satellite.

Read the backgrounder for this project.

Coordinated by Ouranos, this committee will have the mandate to identify the main issues as well as needs in research and development related to the impacts of climate changes, ecosystems and uses vulnerabilities, and adaptation tools and options.

Read the backgrounder for this project.