International Network of Boundary Organizations on Adaptation
For more than 20 years, Ouranos has been helping Quebec and Canadian society to prepare for climate change by linking climate change experts and decision-makers in government and industry.
Rich in hydroelectricity powered by a wealth of water resources, the province of Quebec is also highly vulnerable to flooding and other extreme weather events. In 1996, torrential rains overwhelmed local dams and reservoirs to produce devastating floods in the Saguenay region. Then, in 1998, an unprecedented ice storm knocked out power in much of southern Quebec, leaving more than a million households in the cold.
For Quebec’s leaders and its main energy producer, Hydro-Québec, these back-to-back events were a wake up call: they needed faster and better scientific information and guidance on how climate change would affect the province and its water flows.
Bridging between experts and end users
In 2001, Ouranos was founded by Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of Quebec and Hydro-Québec as a way to coordinate among stakeholders and climate experts. Their vision was to create a bridge between climate science and society’s need to effectively adapt to climate change. Ouranos’ membership has since expanded to include six Québec universities, two cities (Montreal and Quebec City), public utilities in Ontario and Manitoba, and the mining company Rio Tinto Alcan. In all, it brings together more than 450 researchers, experts, practitioners and government and industry decision-makers, collectively working on applied research related to climate change and adaptation.
With expertise that ranges from climate science to knowledge brokering and mobilization, Ouranos and its members help governments and industries develop and implement adaptation strategies from the local to international levels. It is one of only a few organizations in the world that combine science-based climate services—such as regional climate modelling and the development of scenarios—with analyses of vulnerabilities, impacts and adaptation options.
Putting science into action
Ouranos provided significant input to Canada's National Adaptation Strategy and supports adaptation in many sectors in Quebec. Hydro-Québec, for example, draws on Ouranos’ climate scenarios in calculating the province’s energy demand and now has better information for managing its reservoirs to prevent flooding. With input from Ouranos’ climate modeling, the province’s environment ministry developed a hydroclimatic atlas that helps it better understand and prepare for climate impacts on southern Quebec watersheds. And municipalities vulnerable to sea-level rise in coastal Quebec have been better able to develop plans to manage the risk, thanks to Ouranos-led cost-benefit analyses of their adaptation options.
By involving stakeholders at all levels of its programming and decision-making, Ouranos is uniquely able to tailor its research and guidance to meet their very specific needs. Through their longstanding involvement in the consortium, the Government of Quebec now considers Ouranos an essential reference on climate science: in 2023, it appointed the consortium’s CEO as co-chair of a new expert panel on climate change adaptation that will guide government action to make Quebec more resilient.
Accelerating adaptation around the world
Ouranos also contributes internationally, hosting the Regional Information for Society (RIfS) project of the World Climate Research Program. The RIfS project aims to strengthen ties between climate research and the information needs of societies and governments around the world. Ouranos also co-led the 2023 Adaptation Futures international conference—the flagship event of the World Adaptation Science Programme. With the establishment of the SPAN network in 2024, Ouranos hopes to accelerate adaptation globally by bringing together similar networks and organizations that are dedicated to bridging between scientific know-how and their societies’ needs.
