Research projets and publications

The findings of the study helped refine the indicators that are used to better assess future forest productivity. The findings help identify sectors where certain species may be affected in the future and may serve as a basis for certain forest management choices.

The results presented in the Atlas will help actors of the forest sector to better understand the links between the expected changes in climate and ecological impacts; to evaluate the opportunities and the risks associated with climate change for this sector; to better focus future projects on forest ecosystems and more generally on terrestrial ecosystems in Quebec in terms of adaptation to climate change.

The results of this study point out that for the salamanders, it may be more important to monitor anthropogenic activities than climate changes. It also allows to illustrate the relevance of a comprehensive approach to land conservation at the local scale.

In the current context of declining caribou populations, the inclusion of climate components in the analysis of space use by the migratory caribou sheds new light on the factors that determine the dynamics of these populations. These factors are being taken into account in the development of management plans.

The approach and the toolbox have been distributed among various major partners in the environmental assessment field, in particular the Commission sur les enjeux des mines uranifères, appointed by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE).

The project helped to raise awareness among plant health professionals regarding the potential impacts of climate change on crop pests and their natural enemies.

As a result of this research, Quebec stakeholders in crop protection will have the elements needed to launch a climate change adaptation strategy for the sector based on an analysis of the coherence between the actions identified in Quebec’s 2011-2021 crop health strategy and the priority adaptation measures identified during this project.

Agricultural sector users have now access to summary knowledge on climate change and its potential impacts on the agricultural sector. They can access resource documents validated by experts, including an inventory of the knowledge and tools available for dealing with expected climate changes.

The tool developed in this project describes the levels of freedom space and can serve to integrate this concept into municipal and provincial water management policies. The analyses revealed the important role wetlands play in the proper functioning of rivers, especially in the climate change context, and supports efforts to better protect these essential areas.

This project has allowed to increase awareness through regular meetings of the municipal water withdrawers who share the same finite resource. It will allow improved preparedness for expected low flow periods, through a decision support tool that helps municipal users react more
rapidly and equitably. Moreover, it is an approach to monitoring that can be adapted to circumstances other than low flows.

The results obtained for the Yamaska basin will allow the extension of the studies to other basins and could eventually allow the implementation of the methodology within the forecasting system of the Centre d'expertise hydrique du Québec.

The results of this study reinforce the importance of avoiding disturbance of wetlands, which encourages the establishment of the common reed through seed germination, and revegetating any areas disturbed by work in marshes as quickly as possible.

This project reccomands the reduction of the fragmentation of habitats to encourage the spatial reorganization of species; to expand the network of protected areas and to conceive it based on climate change considerations. Moreover, a better system for monitoring biodiversity in Quebec is needed to detect changes and respond to them in time.

This project has revealed that it is to the advantage of the tourism industry to take a proactive leadership role in raising awareness and training; increased knowledge among participants and encouraged decision-making bodies in the pilot regions to adopt a practical approach to climate change adaptation; and shown the need for a support system and regulatory framework for the tourism industry that will encourage better climate change adaptation.

The project helped raise awareness about the health risks related to ragweed for property owners, managers and residents from neighborhoods in the eastern part of Montréal. It also enabled researchers to test the effectiveness of measures such as information mailings to owners of ragweed-infested land in limiting the impacts of ragweed during the pollen season so as to inform decision makers in terms of efforts to be made for heightening awareness.

This project allowed to determine the relationship between climate and mortality in Quebec, using 1981 and 1999 climate and public health data. Moreover, it enabled to estimate future increases in mortality due to climate change.

This project highlighted an higher pollen concentrations during the 1994-2002 period, forecasting an increase in the incidence of allergic rhinitis over the coming decades. Moreover, pollen proliferation appears to be exacerbated by the increase in CO2 concentration and urban sprawl according to this study.

This project allowed to integrate the issue of adaptation to climate change into the curricula of university courses on urban and land use planning, as well as to assess and validate proposed adaptation measures based on criteria regarding feasibility and social acceptability.

This project allowed to raise awareness among the various levels of government and the institutions involved in the development of adaptation policies and actions to the importance of a linkage between the specific needs at the neighbourhood level and the responses and interventions proposed by the municipality.

Collaboration with other research teams doing similar work but at different scales or from a different perspective (societal and territorial vulnerabilities) leads to a more thorough understanding of the issues and effects of adaptation choices.

The aim of this project is to assess the applicability of an innovative approach recently developed by Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis.

This project allows agronomists and engineers to have access to updated data to help them design hydro-agricultural works adapted to Quebec’s climatic and agricultural context, and to be more aware of the need for taking climate change into account in their practices thanks to a presentation on IDF curves under future climatic conditions given at various selected events.

The Agroclimatic Atlas is particularly useful for managing climate risks and opportunities; supporting decision making for long-term planning at the farm scale and for the entire agricultural sector; raising awareness among agricultural stakeholders about climate change and its impacts.

The application and adaptation of the HYDROTEL model to the boreal environment in Quebec will allow Hydro-Québec to better understand past and future hydrological behaviours in these watersheds, and improve the management of hydroelectric production.

This project provided one of the first forums for discussing the analysis of vulnerabilities and opportunities under climate change for forest ecosystem management in Quebec. In particular, we were able to pinpoint the vulnerabilities to consider when using FEM management, and produce a decision-making tool to help managers assess the costs of protecting allowable cut against fire activity, which will increase under climate change.

The results of this study have contributed to an improved understanding of the adaptive capacity of black spruce under climate change, which will help optimize the future management of this species; approaches to forest management that will help reduce climate change impacts on this species; and beginning the development of a tool for predicting the mechanical properties of wood based on the input of environmental data in order to test the impact of climate change on wood formation.

The research suggests that it would be wise to maintain a mix of species, given that they have different responses to the uncertainties in the water balance resulting from climate change. New forest productivity models for calculating timber volumes for harvesting would better capture the relationships between climate, location and growth.

One of the benefits for adaptation from this project is the better knowledge of the CC response and adaptive capacity of balsam fir and black spruce will lead to a deeper understanding of forests and their future productivity (and therefore the amount of wood available), which will guide the management of forest resource harvesting.

The project showed that some coastal communities are already feeling impacts associated with environmental changes. The documentation of some traditional Inuit knowledge was made possible as well as increasing community awareness of climate change issues; and the development of awareness activities for community youth.

The project documented the geomorphic response of the St. Lawrence tributaries to different hydrological conditions ranging from very low flows, to winter floods and very high floods.

This study made it possible to contribute to the reflections of various governmental and non-governmental stakeholders whose role is to encourage the incorporation of climate change adaptation to integrated watershed management in Québec.

This project made it possible to produce information to integrate the influence of climate change into the plans of reconstruction or construction of new power plants the ensure the safety of the equipment; plan for probable changes in extreme flood events in order to benefit from the probable increase in hydroelectric production; evaluate various post-processing methods for climate data, which are essential to various studies leading to adaptation.

The project will provide access to advanced-level climate information that is not available to date, from a regional perspective, for the North.

The use of an approach to constrain climate projection ensembles has become a priority research topic with the publication of CMIP6 data showing greater sensitivity and more dispersion of the climate than CMIP5.

This project has increased knowledge of the components of Great Lakes water supply based on observations of their variability and associated uncertainties.

The overall objective of this project is to develop an operational framework for climate projection for hydrological applications, in cold regions.

This project puts forward a technique for parametric post-treatment of extreme precipitation in climate models by operationalizing work already underway at Ouranos and Polytechnique Montréal.

Thermal refugia in rivers are critical habitats during a heat wave for some coldwater fish populations. This project determines the distribution and typology of refugia, in addition to defining the impacts of global warming on these refugia.

This project aims to assess the main issues related to floodplain mapping as well as to support the application of knowledge, facilitate widespread understanding and use of the mapping carried out by INFO-Crue.

This study aims to measure the impact of climate change on the budgetary items of Quebec's municipal organizations.

This study on the Quebec ski system in the face of climate change will facilitate access to historical and future climate data on snow on the ground throughout Quebec and to understand the vulnerabilities of the system.

This project will improve the consideration of water resources in the context of regional adaptation to climate change in rural areas through the identification of hazards in the area and the assessment of municipalities’ adaptive capacity.

This project examined the relationship between summer weather and the health of workers in five Canadian provinces. It has generated new knowledge that can guide decision-makers and prevention stakeholders.

This project will assess the vulnerability of the Quebec alpine ski system to climate change and identify risks and opportunities for intervention.

The data from the project sheds light on the early symptoms of heat effects. It can be used by health and community workers during home visits to adapt care.

This project facilitates, among other things, the identification of sources of uncertainty associated with traditional water surface profile measurements using real-time kinematic positioning (GNSS-RTK).

This projet will help refining the development of meteorological thresholds for health alerts for several situations of extreme importance for health-related climate change adaptation, for Québec and Canada.

This project examines the inequality issues associated with climate change adaptation solutions. The resulting recommendations will make it possible to establish an impact and vulnerability analysis framework that is adapted to Quebec.