Experimentation in the Governance of Adaptation to Climate Change: Training Grounds for Adaptation

Urban dwellers in Québec, as elsewhere, are showing an increasing desire to take immediate action to improve their living environment and, in some cases, to adapt to climate change. Scattered initiatives, some more subtle than others, led by individuals, community groups or public actors, are taking shape within city landscapes. These initiatives, which aim to create spaces that are more pleasant, healthier and more respectful of nature, are forms of local experimentation.

The initiators of these experiments go beyond the limits of the municipal regulatory framework, advocating a trial and error approach rather than the inertia of the system. Consciously or not, they are contributing to adapting their local environment to climate change. What type of experiments are being implemented and how do they complement municipal initiatives?

• Study experiments of local adaptation to climate change in order to understand the obstacles to their implementation and the adaptation levers put forward by the experiments;

• Identify the impacts of the experiments on the local environment and on institutional learning at different levels and communicate them to the parties concerned.

• Select six local experiments related to urban greening and flood management;

• Carry out a documentary analysis of the experiments followed by a site analysis and semi-structured interviews in order to study all key parameters (resources, tools conducive to project development, obstacles to local adaptation, recommended solutions and approaches, etc.);

• Analyze and compare the cases to highlight contextual elements and the convergences and divergences between these contexts and between experiments;

• Compare the case studies with other case studies that have appeared in official or scientific publications.

Six case studies were selected to test the concept of the ‘local adaptation experiment’: two citizens’ initiatives for greening Québec City’s Saint-Roch neighbourhood, urban agriculture projects led by Les Urbainculteurs, a pilot project for the repair and greening of Rue Anna in Québec City and the Comité Rivière in Saint-Raymond. A local adaptation experiment is an ad hoc initiative that is transitional and adaptive in nature.

Each of these three characteristics has a set of associated indicators. The Kitchener, Ontario stormwater credit policy to reduce runoff, which does not correspond exactly to the definition of an ‘experiment’ presented here, is used as a reference.

Figure 1 : Illustration of the necessary (*) and sufficient (+) conditions for the identification of a local adaptation experiment

With their ad hoc, transitional and adaptive nature, local experiments testify to contemporary forms of urban governance. The latter tends towards hybridization in several respects: the sharing of responsibility and intervention is at once formal and informal, between the public sector and private property owners, between individual citizens and groups, and so on.

Figure 1 shows that, according to the criteria established above, the Urbainculteurs initiative is an example of a local climate change adaptation experiment. This characterization then makes it possible to examine the conditions that enable the emergence of such experiments.

The analysis of the six case studies according to the three identified characteristics of a local adaptation experiment show that an experiment can be experimental to varying degrees. In some cases, it may stay close to the ‘beaten path’ and traditional ways of doing things, taking the institutional route (e.g. the Rue Anna project). In other cases, it may try an innovative approach, exploring alternative development options (Bien Vivre à Saint-Roch and Verdir et Divertir initiatives).

Experiments are initiated by individuals or small groups of individuals, who base their action on their own knowledge, skills and networks. These individuals propose alternative models of intervention and see themselves in a position of collaboration rather than opposition with policy-makers.

The initiatives that meet the project definition of ‘local adaptation experiment’ indicate a need for local and regional actors to go beyond the frameworks for institutional action, which appear too rigid and restrictive to allow for spontaneous action.

Local experiments facilitate the creation of collaborative ties between elected officials, municipal professionals, residents, groups and businesses. They foster mutual recognition as valuable interlocutors on local planning and development issues. They make it possible to explore new ways of adapting the built environment to climate change at the local level.

However, their effects are relatively imperceptible in terms of adapting the physical environment beyond the micro-local or local context. They should be considered to complement or demonstrate municipal action, and to serve as a springboard for larger-scale, more institutionalized efforts (such as pilot projects).

• Regroupement des Organismes de Bassins-Versants du Québec (ROBVQ)