Storytelling for building adaptive capacity: Lessons from the Bow River Basin (Canada)

Summary

Adaptation Stories in the Bow Basin, a communications project, provides a snapshot of climate adaptation efforts in an Albertan watershed. The project invites you to explore diverse themes and stories. By sharing methods, successes, challenges, and opportunities, the Bow River Basin Council, a Watershed Planning and Advisory Council, aims to enhance awareness and foster collaboration across sectors for comprehensive climate adaptation, ultimately increasing the watershed’s adaptive capacity.

Introduction

Since 1994, the Bow River Basin Council (BRBC) has published State of the Watershed (SOW) reports, with the latest update in 2015. The upcoming report, set for release in late 2024, will provide updated insights into the Basin’s health, focusing on key areas such as riparian health, biodiversity, human impacts, and emerging issues. By addressing water quantity, quality, and natural ecosystems, this report aims to enhance public understanding, support informed decision-making, and foster stakeholder engagement for better basin management.

In an ongoing collaboration with the Adaptation and Resilience Training (ART) program, the BRBC has undertaken extensive research on climate change and adaptation. Two ART interns have made significant contributions to the 2024 SOW, particularly in the Climate Change chapter. Building on this foundation, the 2023/24 ART intern, Tenaya Lynx, launched the Adaptation Stories in the Bow Basin initiative. Through interviews across various sectors, she explored adaptation-related projects in the region, weaving together insights from these interviews with a literature review.

Methodology

Storytelling is a powerful tool for communication, capable of bridging gaps in understanding and fostering empathy by connecting audiences with real-life experiences. This project combines personal narratives and academic research, offering a holistic view of climate adaptation efforts in the Bow River Basin. By making complex concepts more accessible and relatable, these stories provide valuable insights into the challenges and successes of adaptation initiatives, inspiring informed action and collaboration toward building resilience in the face of climate change.

“In a place like the Bow Basin, you have this beautiful history, a diverse and complex history in a very rugged landscape… And then you have this headquarter city with blue collar and white collar. And now you add a drought! So there’s this tension between residents and industry, some people will be like, that’s a mess. But I mean, I think it’s fascinating. It’s a great ground to illustrate why it’s so important to have a healthy [watershed]. We need to work on water management. We need to have a great conversation because it’s amazingly complex… because water touches everything.“

Dr. Pablo Pina  

Adaptation strategies

Summary of Adaptation Stories in the Bow Basin

Introduction StoryMap

Understanding climate change in the Bow River Basin involves dealing with changing environmental conditions, different possible emission scenarios, and the complexities of data analysis. Despite these challenges and the potential discrepancies arising from variations in data sources and modeling techniques, climate change projections remain invaluable tools for decision making. They provide critical insights that enable risk assessment, adaptation strategies, and measures to mitigate climate change impacts. By comprehensively assessing these factors, stakeholders can better prioritize actions and allocate resources to address the most pressing challenges within the Basin. 

The Bow River Basin faces a multitude of water-related risks, including heightened susceptibility to drought, more frequent and intense flooding events, increased wildfire risk, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and threats to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. These risks underscore the urgent need for holistic adaptation strategies that encompass diverse sectors. By proactively addressing these challenges, the Basin can enhance its resilience to climate change impacts and safeguard its ecological integrity and socio-economic well-being. 

“Restoration is an act of reconciliation. Restoration to me is an act of healing. By giving back to the land, we are applying reciprocity.“

Flora Giesbrecht – Executive Director of the Elbow River Watershed Partnership | BRBC Watershed Stewardship Coordinating Committee Member

Rural Adaptation StoryMap

In the rural areas of the Bow River Basin, water serves many purposes, catering to the unique needs of diverse users. Unlike urban areas, where water primarily meets municipal and industrial needs, rural communities heavily rely on it for industry, recreation, irrigation, livestock watering, and various agricultural practices.

Angela Ten, Management Biologist with Trout Unlimited Canada (TUC), standing in front of a man-made beaver analogue in the Whispering Pines West Tributary, a project completed by the team at TUC.

Photo Credit: Trout Unlimited Canada

Alongside agricultural demands, land managers grapple with infrastructure challenges like degraded roads, bridges, and culverts that impede efficient access. To address these issues and promote ecological integrity, Watershed Stewardship Groups and other environmental non-profits collaborate with agricultural producers and land managers. These efforts not only aim to improve water management but also nurture the sustainability of aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity. Recognizing the pivotal role of rural communities in safeguarding the health of our headwaters, whose vitality reverberates throughout the entire Basin. 

“We try to stay solution-focused, even though we’re highly sensitive to the problems. It’s not doing anyone any good unless you are solutions-focused. And I think bioengineering is one of those solutions.”

— Sharlene Fritz, Ghost Watershed Alliance Society Education

Urban Adaptation StoryMap

The concentration of people, infrastructure, businesses, and essential services within the Bow River Basin poses unique challenges and opportunities for watershed management. Factors such as aging infrastructure and public health concerns underscore the importance of proactive adaptation measures. Various techniques, including stream bank restoration, reconstructed wetlands, sustainable airport drainage infrastructure, and low impact development offer avenues for addressing these challenges.

Alarmingly, an estimated one-third of this infrastructure is deemed to be in a state of disrepair in Canadian municipalities, necessitating urgent retrofitting or replacement, as emphasized by Warren and Lulham (2021). These findings highlight the urgency of proactive urban adaptation to ensure the resilience and functionality of critical urban infrastructure in the face of ongoing challenges and future uncertainties. 

Policy and Planning StoryMap

The management of water in the Bow River Basin involves multiple jurisdictions and is governed by numerous policies, laws, licenses, and approvals. Responsibilities to protect and manage water span across the Albertan and Canadian governments, First Nations, municipalities, and irrigation districts. 

Within this complex regulatory framework, forward-thinking municipal adaptation plans, organizational strategies, and climate-informed decision-making tools emerge as vital components. Navigating Alberta’s intricate policy landscape can be daunting due to overlapping regulations. As such, the initial section of this Story Map provides a summary of the regulatory hierarchy applicable to the Bow River Basin.

Knowledge and Skills StoryMap

In the pursuit of climate resilience, knowledge and skill development emerges as foundational pillars for successful implementation. By giving professionals the right skills for dealing with climate change, we can respond better to its many challenges. Central to capacity-building is the preparation of students and professionals who will be at the forefront of resilience-building endeavors. By equipping them with the knowledge and expertise required to navigate the intricacies of our basin’s landscape, we fortify our resilience against future adversities.  

To deepen our comprehension of capacity building endeavors in the Bow Basin, we conducted a series of interviews with the aim of uncovering the essential elements for fostering knowledge and skills within a climate-conscious workforce and public. 

Here are some of the topics covered in our story maps:

• Beaver coexistence
• Bioengineering
• Mass-balance operational modelling for watershed scale adaptation planning
• Hanging culvert replacements
• Drainage infrastructure
• Municipal adaptation and resilience planning
• Regenerative agriculture
• And so much more!

Join us as we dive into these stories, learn from the experiences of others, and work together to create a more resilient Bow River Basin.

View the story map collection here: Adaptation Stories in the Bow Basin