32. Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation in Drinking Water Source Protection in Ontario: Challenges and Opportunities

Climate change will create numerous challenges for water managers. In Ontario, many parts of the province will experience decreased runoff and groundwater recharge, reduced lake levels, and more extreme precipitation events. Shift in patterns of precipitation also are expected, with more falling as rain rather than snow in winter, and with summers being drier. For water managers, the implications are serious. At the most basic level, long-term plans and investments that assume that future hydrological conditions in future will be the same as those of the past simply are not sensible. How can water managers at the local level, who already face considerable challenges in dealing with current climatic variability, adjust to this new reality? This chapter argues for adaptation through mainstreaming, in other words, building adaptation to climate change into existing decision-making and planning processes. Ongoing efforts to protect drinking water sources across Ontario currently afford the best opportunity to mainstream climate change into an existing water-related planning process. The chapter identifies challenges and opportunities for accomplishing this goal.