16-22118 - Requirement for Development of CSA Standard on Green Infrastructure to (16-22118)

Under the Climate-Resilient Core Public Infrastructure project, the National Research Council’s Building Regulations for Market Access Program has a requirement to update their National Model Codes and referenced standards to reflect climate change adaptation and extreme weather events. While the National Model Codes (e.g. Building, Fire, Plumbing and Energy) are produced and published by the National Research Council, a new set of CSA Standards will address under this contract Climate Change Adaptation for storm water management.

The Climate-Resilient Core Public Infrastructure project aims to integrate climate resilience into design guides, codes and related materials, which will be the basis for future infrastructure builds and rehabilitation work in Canada. The work would involve preparation of proposed changes to national model building, energy, fire, plumbing and updated related guidance documents. The proposed change modules could be adopted by provinces and territories in 2020.

This contract seeks to enter into an agreement with the CSA to develop two standards related to green infrastructure: one for the design of bioretention storm water infrastructure and one for the construction of bioretention storm water infrastructure. These standards would be welcomed by Canada’s storm water community. In consultation with storm water stakeholders, bioretention was identified as the highest priority area among the green infrastructure options for the development of standards. Bioretention is a storm water management practice using a combination of retention, native terrestrial vegetation and engineered soil.

These standards would offer a comprehensive scope for the design and construction of bioretention infrastructure to reduce the impact of storms and extreme rainfall on watersheds and communities. Standard with principle objective stemming from this funding to support sections related to climate change adaptation and extreme weather events through a consensus based process established by the Standards Council of Canada. The CSA standard development will occur concurrently and in harmonization with the work currently underway at the NRC.