Atlantic Ecosystem Initiatives: Application Form
Atlantic Ecosystem Initiatives
Application Form
2015-2016
Please see theAtlantic Ecosystem Initiatives: Application Guidelines for instructions on completing this application form.
- Organization Information
Name: Association of Canadian Delegates to the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment
Address: Robert Capozi, Secretariat
C/O Department of Environment and Local Government
P.O. Box / CP. 6000 Fredericton, New Brunswick E3B 5H1
Phone: (506) 453-8946 Fax:[Fax]
Email:
Organization Type (select one)
☒Non-government organization
☐Aboriginal government or organization / ☐University / Academic Institution
☐Coalition or network of organizations
Website Address (if available):
Charitable/Non-Profit Organization Registration No. (if available): [Charitable/Non-Profit Organization Registration No.]
Briefly describe your organization’s mandate (up to 200 words)
The Association of Canadian Delegates to the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment supports the Canadian activities of the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment (Council). The Council, established in 1989, is focused on completing its 2012-2017 Action Plan (Website: for more information) which includes the following goals:
Goal 1: Restored and Conserved Habitats - We envision a healthy and resilient Gulf of Maine where people and aquatic life thrive.
Goal 2: Environmental and Human Health - Environmental conditions support the health of people and the ecosystem.
Goal 3: Sustainable Communities - People who live and work in communities around the Gulf of Maine have information needed to adapt to the changing environment.
The Council’s Climate Network recognizes the importance of developing resources for managers including information on climate preparedness and risk reduction, and actively supports the EC-NOAA MOU. The Council provides information in a form that is easily accessible and scientifically credible.It has a well demonstrated capacity to successfully complete projects, such as this one, which build on existing work.
Project Contacts / Contacts must be knowledgeable on the contents of the application.
Name: Bill Appleby, Director, EC Prediction Services Operations East / Name: Ellen Mecray, NOAA Regional Climate Services Director – Eastern region
Title: [Project Contact Title] / Title: [Secondary Project Contact Title]
Phone: 902-426-4053 / Phone: 508-824-5116, ext. 263
Email: / Email:
2. Project Summary
Project Title: Increasing Climate Risk Preparedness, Water Quality Management and Flooding Control by Enhancing Planning Use of Intensity/Duration/Frequency Extreme Rainfall Data
Project Location: Atlantic Canada including: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland/Labrador
(community, city, town, region, province within the Atlantic Ecosystem)
Start Date:April 1, 2015 End Date: March 31, 2018
Lengthinmonths: 36 months
Please provide a brief summary describing your project (approximately 200 words).
This project involves collaborative work to create a web-based tool offering improved access to Intensity/Duration/Frequency (IDF) extreme rainfall data, helping environmental managers and municipal planners better prepare for climate impacts in four provinces of Atlantic Canada (NB, NS, PEI and N.L.). Both municipal leaders in Atlantic communities (in a 2014 survey supported by HOTO) and provincial planners have voiced a need for better tools to strengthen planning and to manage water quality, stormwater and flooding during frequent and intense extreme precipitation events. To enhance their risk preparedness, they need ready access to precipitation data, including IDF curves, in a user-friendly online format.
The proposed interactive web tool, based on the US precip.net site, will rely on existing data already compiled by EC. It will be used to help inform Environment Canada on possible future expansion of this functionality to other regions. During the first year, EC’s Meteorological Services will provide a student intern to prepare data, and the project will gather input from potential users of the tool (such as ecosystem managers and transportation directors responsible for infrastructure decisions that influence wetlands). In year 2, the draft tool will be developed and revised based on input from potential users, and the final tool will be shared at a regional workshop and training session focused on planning for extreme precipitation events. During the final year, provincial partners will share the final web tool with colleagues and constituents and help communities integrate precipitation data into climate change adaptation planning.
Funding amount requested (by fiscal year):
April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016: $67,466
April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017: $71,300
April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018: $13,340
Total request: $152,106
Prior History with Environment Canada:
Identify if your organization is a new or returning applicant/recipient of funding from Environment Canada.
☐First time applying for funding
☐Previously applied but did not receive funding / ☒Past recipient of funding
☒Current recipient of AEI funding
Have you applied to other Environment Canada funding programs for this project?
Yes ☐ No ☒
If yes, please specify which program(s) and the year funding was provided:
Click here to enter text.
- Project Description
a)Program Priorities:
Select one or more of the eligible program priorities and associated specific issues thatyour project will address.
☐ Water Quality
Specific stressors (Choose the specific areas below that apply to your project):
☐Nutrients
☒ Sediments
☐ Bacteria
☐Pesticides
☐Micro-plastics
☒ Habitat and Biodiversity (Choose the specific areas below that apply to your project):
☒Prevention of biodiversity loss
☐ Significant habitats such as:
☐Acadian and / or Boreal forests
☐Grassland / Argo-ecosystems
☐ Estuaries / eel grass beds
☐ Species of interest (please identify):
Precipitation frequency impacts culvert design and habitat connectivity
☒ Impacts of Climate Change (Choose the specific areas below that apply to your project):
☒Risk Preparedness
☒Climate change risk mapping and prediction
☒Flooding
☐Storm surge
☐Sea-level rise
☐Changing coastline
☒Habitat degradation
b)Eligible Activities
Select one or more of the eligible activities thatyour project will engage in.
☒ Planning and Decision Making:
☒Building on existing or the development of new integrated strategies, plans, frameworks and action plans
☒Adaptation planning
☒Integration of data/information
☐Coordination or adoption of common scientific protocols
☒ Knowledge & Science
☒Geographic Information System(GIS) mapping
☒Vulnerability, risk, or threat assessments
☒Measurement, analysis or modelling of ecosystem change or trends
☐Measurement or assessment of multiple stressors and their cumulative effects
☒Assessment of baseline environmental conditions
☒Development of scientific tools, techniques, indicators and approaches
☐Monitoring and/or modeling of cumulative effects
☒ Action
☐Habitat restoration
☐Coastalerosion mitigation
☐Best management practices to improve water quality (i.e. livestock fencing, riparian enhancement, erosion control)
☐Reducing ecosystem stressors
☒Climate Risk Preparedness
c) Project Purpose:
In a few sentences, explain the purpose of this project. Describe the priority/priorities being addressed, how they will be addressed through this project and why the project is important to the ecosystem. Link your answer to the program priority selected in 3a.
This project supports risk preparedness in Atlantic ecosystems and communities by enhancing their technical capacity to predict flooding and other impacts associated with extreme precipitation events. Planners and engineers rely on IDF curves and precipitation frequency calculations to plan roadways, culverts, and other drainage structures, and to engineer solutions to heavy rainfall events that mitigate habitat degradation.
d) Project Goals and Objectives:
Identify project goals and objectives that will be achieved within the timeframe of the project. Clearly explain how the project will benefit the Atlantic Ecosystem.
The overarching goal of the project is to improve the climate preparedness of the Atlantic region by making it easier for planners, ecosystem managers and other decision-makers to access data concerning extreme precipitation events. Project objectives include compiling existing data and getting feedback from potential users about their information needs; designing an interactive website that provides precipitation data in a visually accessible format; incorporating user feedback in site revisions; and educating local and regional representatives about the tool and related issues and resources at a workshop.
e) Key Activities/Work Plan:
Describe the proposed project, providing details of the activities to be undertaken, the techniques involved, and planned timelines.
The first phase of the project involves work to compile existing IDF data from EC so that it can be readily integrated into an accessible web-based format. This will be done by a student intern, hired by EC, during the first year of the project.
During 2015, the project will organize an interactive webinar to gather input from potential users as to the contents and features of the prototype precip.net website. Results from this session will be used to guide the design and programming of Canada’s online IDF tool.
The project will hire a computer programmer to develop the online portion of the tool in 2016, with advisory input provided by NOAA’s Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, which developed the prototype website precip.net. The IDF website tool will be housed on the Gulf of Maine Council’s website.
The project also will convene a regional workshop for users of IDF information to help advance preparedness for extreme weather in Atlantic Canada. The workshop will include an interactive session to promote the use of the new IDF website, help participants make full use of this new resource, and promote the site within their jurisdictions to those engaged in planning, construction and mitigation projects which are sensitive to extreme precipitation events
Late in 2017 and early in 2018, the provincial representatives who attended the regional workshop will share the new IDF site with colleagues and constituents in each jurisdiction to enhance climate change adaptation planning and gather input from users to help in evaluating the product.
Please provide a detailedproject work plan below, describing the activities and anticipated time frames.
Activity / Description and Results / Time Frame (dates) Start End
Gather input on needs; plan and hold first webinar / Determine needs for website / April 2015 / June 2015
Prepare data and create first draft of website / Contract with Technical Coordinator and Web Programmer/Developer to work with EC intern to carry out task / May 2015 / March 2016
Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC) and NB Dept. of Environment and Local Government (NB E&LC) help guide site planning / NRCC and NB E&LC guide site planning based on and Canadian data / April 2015 / November 2015
Hold second webinar / Get feedback on draft data and website / April 2016 / May 2016
Complete website / Technical coordinator and programmer/developer take constituent comments and complete the website / June 2016 / August 2016
Extreme Precipitation Workshop / Hold a regional workshop on planning for extreme precipitation. This willincludea training for provincial partners on the website tool and its potential local uses, and planning for the next year of outreach in which provinces help communities integrate precipitation data into climate change adaptation planning / June 2016 / October 2016
Prepare outreach tools and Coordinate outreach / The Outreach coordinator will work with four provinces (NB, NS, PEI, NL) to carry out planning and outreach in their jurisdictions; the Climate Network Coordinator will prepare outreach tools / November 2016 / February 2018
Prepare outreach summary report / Report will cover outcomes and lessons learned from jurisdictional outreach. / March 2018 / March 2018
f) Project Team Experience:
Identify relevant qualifications and experiences of the project team members to demonstrate the organization’s experience and capacity to carry out the project.
This collaborative project draws on the strength of an ongoing partnership between EC and NOAA, formalized in a Memorandum of Understanding. Bill Appleby and Ellen Mecray, the co-Chairs of the Gulf of Maine Council’s Climate Network (which the Canadian Association helps support), have extensive experience developing online tools that make climate data more accessible and that assist in predicting climate impacts. Bill Appleby directs Environment Canada Meteorological Service’s Predictions Services Operations East. Ellen Mecray is the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration’s Regional Climate Services Director for the Eastern Region.
NOAA’s National Weather Service has been working on a parallel effort to generate precipitation frequency estimates (called Atlas-14) that are required for use in engineering calculations for infrastructure design and construction (currently accessible through the precip.net prototype website at the NRCC. Mecray will work with the NRCC in their advisory role to ensure that the Canadian site benefits from lessons learned in creating the US site.
Rick Fleetwood, EC Regional Climatologist in Fredericton, NB, will be assisting with the IDF project. Fleetwood has served as a meteorologist with EC for 27 years, and has experience managing national and regional-scale projects—including the most recent national update to the extreme rainfall data for Canada (in coordination with EC’s Engineering Climate section).
EC’s Engineering Climate Services section, which is responsible for providing Canada’s official IDF information, will work closely with the project team to ensure that information on this new web tool is credible and meets EC standards. This project will make readily accessible the most up-to-date IDF information for Canada based on actual observations (filling a different need than other new IDF tools based on downscaled data from future climate models).
g) Project Partners:
Detail the involvement and role of all project partners. (Do not include financial details here).
The following Provincial representatives will provide user input for the IDF tool, coordinate tool evaluation and promote use of the information in their jurisdictions:
David Briggins, Director, Drinking Water and Water Resources Branch, Nova Scotia Environment, Science Division;
Darryl Pupek, Director, State of the Environment Branch, New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government;
Jim Young, Director, Prince Edward island Department of Environment, Labour and Justice, Environmental Division; and
Martin Goebel, Assistant Deputy Minister – Environment Executive Branch, Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Environment and Conservation
In addition, at least 20 workshop participants across the Atlantic and Gulf of Maine region will partner to conduct provincial level outreach for the project.
- Evaluation
a) Evaluation Plan:
Provide an evaluation plan that clearly demonstrates how you will assess whether the project goals and objectives have been met. The plan should include the methodology and any calculations/formulas used to measure your project’s results.
During its development, the website will be designed and tested virtually and through regular provincial contacts from EC and the Gulf of Maine Council to ensure it meets the provinces’ information needs. In the second year of the project, the rollout of the site and its contents will be the feature of a regional-scale workshop demonstrating site functions and training potential users. During the final year of the product, provincial representatives will share a survey with the website’s initial local-level users, encouraging input from them on the structure, functionality and value of the site. The feedback from the workshop and from the provincial users will be used to evaluate the site content and functionality.
b) Evaluation Criteria:
Provide a description of how your proposal addresses both the applicable Required and Desirable Criteria.
Required Criteria(Project proposals are required to meet the following criteria).
Demonstrate strong linkages to the AEI program priorities.
Precipitation frequency (IDF) information is critical to the design of drainage and storage structures that—in the event of extreme runoff—can mitigate flooding impacts on water quality and sensitive habitats. Without this information, roadways, bridges and culverts may be under-designed to support the precipitation and resulting flows causing failures, erosion, and large post-storm repair costs. Thus, IDF information can increase risk preparedness as well as mitigate against habitat degradation, helping communities and natural ecosystems facing the more extreme magnitude and frequency of precipitation associated with climate change.
Be scientifically and/or technically sound.
The Canadian precipitation and IDF information that EC is providing for this project meets Canada’s regulatory standards. The Gulf of Maine Council is adding value by facilitating development of a website that enables ready user access to these data throughout the Atlantic region. The partnership with Environment Canada ensures that the data are technically sound and that trusted information will be delivered in a useable form. This project offers a broad range of decision-makers from the Atlantic provinces access to credible governmental data on extreme precipitation.
Demonstrate management capability to successfully undertake the project.