Research projects and publications

The project enable Québec City to plan a long-term conservation network that takes climate change into account, and integrate this network into its planning management while contributing to the Ministère des Affaires Municipales et de l’Habitation’s Strategy to ensure the occupation and vitality of the territories.

This research project is designed to better understand the dynamics of cyanobacterial blooms and cyanotoxins under climate change. The results will provide a solid foundation for biodiversity conservation through adaptation measures.

The economic quantification of ES generated by natural capital can be used to develop new indicators for land-use planning. It can also serve to inform decision making and can be integrated with other decision support tools such as cost-benefit and multi-criteria analyses.

The knowledge gained from this project will allow the development or revision of planning and action tools for decision makers in order to promote the adaptation of the crop protection sector to climate change.

The results of this study provided producers and agricultural advisors with information about the benefits and limitations of controlled drainage as an adaptation measure against expected climate change.

This project  helped facilitate consultation between actors from the different sectors concerned and helped increase awareness of climate change and adaptation.

The project will provide rural Québec MRCs with greater autonomy in their actions to create knowledge and combat climate change.

This project changed the perception of climate change among farmers and agricultural advisors following discussion meetings and various local, regional and provincial presentations. It also increased the resilience of Québec farms to climate change and made this resilience accessible through information sheets and regional climate change adaptation plans.

The examples and lessons learned from the case studies will help local, provincial/state and federal policy makers in designing effective policy instruments and processes, and in improving existing ones, in such a way that they enable effective adaptation to climate change.

These documented case studies will help to disseminate and transfer information, engage decision makers and better recognize barriers to adaptation within the energy sector in order to overcome them.

This first Canadian portrait of the interactions between GHG mitigation and adaptation to climate change in the field of energy allows to educate policymakers and companies from the electricity sector about the complex interactions between mitigation efforts and adaptation to climate change

This study is particularly useful for energy policymakers concerned with energy production and distribution, including demand management, the upscaling of equipment, and energy efficiency programs allowing to reduce heat gain in buildings in order to mitigate the increase in air conditioning requirements.

The approaches developed will help guide strategy decisions made by industry partners (Hydro-Québec, Manitoba Hydro) and communities in sub-Arctic regions regarding wildfire risk management.

This project will help Canadian electricity providers such as Hydro-Québec, Manitoba Hydro and Ontario Power Generation to improve the long-term planning and reliability of wind power generation.

This approach will allow Canadian hydropower producers to better assess their exposure to persistent droughts while benefiting from a better understanding of the long-term hydrological variability in the production territory.

This project will provide hydropower producers with the robust scientific analyses to guide decision making in regards to climate change adaptations. The results will help determine whether the significance of recently observed floods is part of natural variability or if it is attributable to climate change, in which case, it may be relevant to adjust design criteria and management strategies accordingly.

Any stakeholder interested in hydroelectric asset valuation in the context of climate change now has access to a guide, validated by experts in the field, to help in carrying out rigorous assessments. The methods proposed in the Guidebook and the documented case studies will contribute to improving the consideration of climate change impacts in the valuation of hydroelectric assets.

This project provides a blueprint for Canadian dam managers to include climate change information into flood design values, and proposes solutions to address major sources of uncertainties. It offers a decision-making framework to assess and select adaptation options, mindful of dam managers’ operational context.

The mapping tool and model developed will better equip MFFP fisheries managers to evaluate salmonid habitats quality in Québec’s northern lakes and thereby prioritize actions to adapt their resource management measures according to the response of the fish habitats to climate change, based notably on changes in temperature and dissolved oxygen in the lakes.

The project results will help maintain the ecological integrity of the natural heritage of Northern Quebec by backing decisions and actions regarding land development and conservation in Nunavik with solid science that takes into account the effects of current and long-term climate change.

The guide to developing a climate change adaptation plan is specifically designed to support municipal organizations in Quebec in their adaptation processes by helping them assess and manage the risks associated with climate change.

To better support the participation of seniors in Quebec and France in environmental and climate volunteering while combating ageism at a time when global warming is unavoidable, it is important to translate the Retirees in Service to the Environment (RISE) program into French and adapt it to an intergenerational context.

Adapting to climate change is an increasingly important concern in land use and urban planning. This raises issues that pose challenges to various parties involved in planning for the revitalization of major industrial zones. This project aims to enrich our knowledge of the regulatory possibilities that can offer solutions in this context.

This pre-research project aims to fill in the gaps in the literature on the vulnerability of people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity to climate change, as well as the differentiated impacts of climate change adaptation measures on these populations in Quebec.

The PARCS en Santé project aims to implement and evaluate a long-term intervention strategy with input from the public. This strategy is expected to protect ecosystems in peri-urban nature parks while reducing risks to human health from tick-borne diseases in a changing climate.

The summary issued for this topic under study reviews the various climatic phenomena affecting Quebec, recalls some precedents where heritage buildings have been damaged or destroyed by a hazard, and makes a (non-exhaustive) inventory of adaptation measures implemented in Quebec or elsewhere.

This project identified future climate trends in Quebec for the purpose of helping wine growers plan their grape variety choices. The results could influence future criteria for reserved designations, specifying the types of grape varieties and their possible geographical extent in the context of climate change.

This project aims to answer the following question : Does the improved simulation of precipitation extremes with the new generation of regional climate models with 2.5 km resolution lead to an improvement in flooding simulations by a hydrological model in southern Quebec?

The results obtained make it possible to provide dairy farm managers with concrete recommendations for choosing forage mixes adapted to current and future climate conditions and solutions to reduce the risk of heat stress in barns during hot summer weather.

The project identified concrete examples of uses for the Agroclimatic Atlas, thereby introducing it to a larger number of stakeholders and promoting its use.

The knowledge resulting from this project will enable the development or revision of planning and action tools for decision makers in order to assist the crop protection sector to adapt to climate change.

A better understanding of the risks of flower frost damage and water stress in blueberry fields and the effect of climate change on these risks, as well as target profitability thresholds to be reached through yield increases to justify investing in an irrigation system

The RADEAU 1 and 2 projects exploited and structured the large quantity of existing data and developed new data in order to characterize the water balance of the regions under study in current and future climates, and thus help inform the government, regional actors and other studies on water management.

This project will inform various institutions about the contribution of UA to food security, food justice, individual and collective resilience with regard to food and adaptation to climate change in the Montréal metropolitan area.

A better understanding of the contribution of AEPs and agroforestry systems to wildlife movement in agricultural environments allows for the prioritization of land-use planning actions to promote their sustainability and effectiveness. In a changing context, the use of both natural and social science approaches is recommended to promote the adoption and sustainability of AEPs and agroforestry systems in agricultural areas.

Raising awareness among key fisheries stakeholders of the expected effects of global ocean changes on northern shrimp populations and fisheries based on new, robust findings.

Identification of key factors and elements favouring the restoration of riparian wetlands and their services in agricultural environments.

Producers and agricultural stakeholders will be better equipped to understand the impacts of climate change on land use and its effects on soil health and vulnerability to degradation.

This project will provide knowledge to better adaptation strategies for production and management to ensure the sustainability of the important aquaculture industry and recreational tourism activities that depend on brook trout.

This project aims to produce and disseminate climate scenarios for assessing the impacts of greenhouse gases beyond 2100. Case studies will be done to illustrate their use in analyzing the climate vulnerabilities of mine site reclamation infrastructure. 

The aim of this project is to draw up an inventory of work in progress and work that has been completed over the past 10 years on green infrastructure in urban areas in Quebec. It will also help to unify Quebec’s experts on urban green infrastructure and support better coordination of their research.

This case study will generate hard data on the structure and impact of a continuing education initiative for municipal elected officials. The data will be used directly to improve the UMQ’s training offering, as well as other educational initiatives on adaptation for elected officials and municipal employees.

This project will provide an analysis of the economic impacts of forest fires in the context of climate change in Quebec. It will also analyze the cost effectiveness of adaptation solutions to enable informed decision-making.

The aim of this project is to study the knowledge transfer methods implemented by Agriclimat and to analyze their results. The strategies will be used to improve the knowledge transfer on climate change adaptation performed by other organizations in Quebec.