We worked District of North Vancouver to complete Milestones 1 and 2 of the Building Adaptive & Resilient Communities (BARC) program.  Working with the District’s Adaptation Team, we hosted workshops on identifying climate change impact to accurately reflect localized climate data and existing risks and vulnerabilities facing the District.  We then consolidated the final list of impact statement to receive approval from the Adaptation Team through a collaborative feedback process that incorporated several service areas.  Two vulnerability assessment workshops were conducted, and we trained the District on a tailored risk assessment methodology (an innovative hybrid risk methodology combining BARC’s Risk Framework with the existing District Asset Management framework). The District has consolidated the risk and vulnerability scores using the online BARC tool, resulting in a prioritized list of impacts that moved through the adaptation planning stage in Milestone Three.

Many will know BARC as a national capacity building program for municipalities focused on adaptation and resilience. Well over 100 Canadian municipalities, large and small, have used BARC’s framework, tools and resources to guide their adaptation and resilience building efforts. However, BARC has grown to become much more than a program. BARC is the window through which ICLEI engages in adaptation and resilience policy development, planning, applied research, resource development, capacity building, networking and much more.