The St. Stephen Waterfront Trail is an important recreational and community asset that is increasingly exposed to climate-related risks due to its coastal location. To better anticipate future impacts and reduce long-term damage costs, the Municipal District of St. Stephen engaged CIMA+ to carry out a structured climate vulnerability and risk assessment and develop practical adaptation strategies tailored to the municipality’s needs.
CIMA+’s multidisciplinary team worked closely with municipal staff to integrate local knowledge of the site and recent climate events, including winter storms and coastal flooding, into the assessment. The analysis identified the primary hazards affecting the trail and adjacent infrastructure, including extreme precipitation, coastal flooding driven by sea-level rise and storm surge, freeze-thaw cycles, extreme heat, and wildfire risk.
Using the latest CMIP6 climate projections, CIMA+ completed a climate vulnerability and risk assessment following Engineers Canada’s PIEVC High-Level Screening Guide methodology. The assessment focused on medium- and long-term planning horizons under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario and a low municipal risk tolerance, reflecting the municipality’s financial and operational realities.
Based on these findings, CIMA+ developed a range of resilience strategies using the widely recognized Protect–Accommodate–Retreat framework for coastal infrastructure. The alternatives were evaluated through a Multi-Criteria Scenario Analysis (MCSA) that considered implementation costs, technical effectiveness, public acceptability, and co-benefits related to other climate hazards.
The project concluded with a clear implementation roadmap, enabling the municipality to prioritize realistic adaptation measures, optimize future investments, and strengthen the long-term resilience of the Waterfront Trail for the benefit of the community.
Key Challenges
- Assessing multiple climate hazards affecting a complex coastal environment.
- Comparing adaptation strategies based on municipal priorities, including cost, effectiveness, and public acceptability.
- Supporting informed decision-making within the constraints of limited municipal resources.
Innovative Solutions
- Applied Engineers Canada’s PIEVC methodology to a recreational municipal asset.
- Developed a transparent Multi-Criteria Scenario Analysis (MCSA) to compare adaptation options.
- Integrated local knowledge with forward-looking CMIP6 climate projections.
- Produced a practical implementation roadmap to support resilient infrastructure planning and future investment decisions.