3 minute read
Integrating Climate Change into Asset Management Planning
Just as the practice of asset management has been widely adopted among Canadian municipalities, climate change adaptation has become more essential as extreme weather events and a changing climate threaten the resilience of communities. Like the discipline of asset management, climate change adaptation shares an overarching goal of achieving sustainable service delivery and aligns with the core elements of the asset management framework.
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Figure 1: Similarities between AM and Climate Change Adaptation
Because of their similarities, municipalities looking to incorporate climate change adaptation measures into their organization can do so by integrating measures into their existing asset management framework.
ASSESSMENT STAGE
The Assessment Stage of the asset management framework requires municipal organizations to consider the ways in which their policies and procedures facilitate an effective and productive program. The asset management policy can be revisited or developed to include a commitment to integrating and addressing climate change adaptation, along with establishing the personnel – such as environmental staff – that have expert understanding of climate change adaptation to facilitate and endorse measures throughout the program.
Figure 2: Pillars of a standard asset management framework that adheres to best practices set forth by ISO 55,000 and the Institute of Asset Management
Figure 3: Incorporating climate change considerations into an asset management policy
The asset management strategy assesses the capacity, knowledge and processes of an organization’s asset management program. Likewise, the strategy can also assess an organization’s climate change adaptation measures to identify gaps in implementation and how to better prioritize climate change adaptation objectives.
PLANNING STAGE
The planning stage of the asset management framework includes elements related to data and information, condition assessments and key processes such as risk assessment, lifecycle management and the definition of levels of service.
Asset data is a fundamental element of any asset management strategy; by further including historical climate data in an asset inventory, organizations are better positioned to capture the impacts climate change has on their infrastructure systems. Data such as precipitation levels, water levels, average temperatures and past extreme weather events based on geographical location will help an organization to anticipate which assets are most susceptible to climate change and the costs associated.
When conducting condition assessments of your assets, also consider exposure, vulnerability, resilience and adaptation factors to assess the impact that climate change may have on your infrastructure system.
Figure 4: Four major conceptual factors in assessing climate change impact and adaptation of an infrastructure system
Incorporating these four factors will enable your organization to conduct more robust risk assessments and can also be incorporated into lifecycle management and level of service frameworks. For example, a change in climate may require different maintenance and rehabilitation requirements during the lifecycle of certain assets to maintain their function during extreme weather events. Similarly, the types of material used for assets may need to change as assets are exposed to new temperatures and climates.
IMPLEMENTATION STAGE
By incorporating climate change adaptation considerations into asset management frameworks, organizations can create financial strategies for their infrastructure systems that reveal the true costs to maintain assets now and well into the future. Integrating adaptation measures into asset management programs will better ensure that municipal organizations are able to uphold sustainable service delivery in an era of a changing climate.
JOHN MURRAY is the General Manager of Strategy & Performance at PSD Citywide, overseeing the development and implementation of asset management programs/plans for local governments and public sector organizations. As a leader in asset management, he facilitates knowledge exchange and collaboration with municipal experts and industry leaders nationally and internationally.
