1. In what ways is climate change affecting municipalities in Canada? Discuss the concept of “resiliency”, what does it mean for a city to be “resilient”? What land-use planning tools are available to municipalities to help deal with climate change? Summarize these tools and explain how they do this.
2. Municipalities are capable of developing local land-use policies and regulations that guide actions to combat climate change, “Transform TO” is one example and presents much of the work Toronto is doing in this area. Generally, there two approaches to dealing with climate change – “adaptation” and “mitigation”. Define both categories of actions and give 4 examples of each. In your answer, clearly explain why the examples that you chose fall under that category. Remember that some actions to combat climate change fall under both categories as the two approaches overlap, give 4 examples of these actions as well. (Note: you may support your written answer for this question with a carefully drawn and clearly labeled diagram.). What are other examples of land-use policies and regulations can be utilized by municipalities to deal with the effects of climate change?
3. Read attach file “Kaplow article” First. The Toronto Green Standard (TGS) v4 is organized around 5 key “priority areas” that reflect the City of Toronto’s environmental pressures and priorities. Name these 5 priority areas and give an example of a performance measure from each. There are 3 sets of TGS standards that apply to different types of development, name these 3 sets of standards. Why is the City of Toronto putting a lot of emphasis on ensuring that new construction is more sustainable? In your answer, explain how constructing buildings in a more sustainable manner will contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the fight against climate change. Finally, Kaplow presents a good summary of green building initiatives from several countries and jurisdictions. He argues that green building development follow three distinct regulatory schemes. Describe each of these three regulatory schemes and relate how the evolution of the Toronto Green Standard reflects these three schemes.