The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority is looking at climate change as it deals with challenges after intense weather events.
Water Resources Coordinator Dan Heinbuck said climate change has resulted in a lack of predictability in our weather that makes forecasting much more difficult than it once was.
He said accurate forecasting is critical when it comes to things like extreme weather events and flooding. Heinbuck said one the things that makes forecasting difficult is the Great Lakes and the way weather systems change as they pass over them.
“When we look to take those forecasts and put those into modelling forecasts for stream flows, it makes it that much more difficult because there is so much variability or potential for change,” he said. “Are the lakes going to increase the intensity of the storm system or are they going to take that energy away and what does that mean?”
Heinbuck said other options for dealing with climate change and the flooding it can bring include prohibiting building on flood plains and building as much resilience as possible on the land.
“Trying to re-establish some wetlands or protect the existing wetlands that we have and they provide a really good capacity for flood storage. The other thing we look at over the watershed is head water storage features. So things that we can do on the field level to slow that water down and reduce the erosion that would cause,” he said.
Heinbuck said there isn’t much they can do about heavy snow storms in the winter. But, he added what they do when there is a heavy snow fall is go out and measure the water content in that snow. Then they would build that information into their flood model when they’re expecting a melt.
