WhiteCAP_Plan_01SEPT..

Northern Climate ExChange WhiteCAP Draft Plan
1.0 Introduction
Climate change, and the host of challenges and opportunities it presents to the North,
has become an important matter for the Yukon. Over the past fifty years, the Western
Arctic region of Canada has experienced a significant increase in temperature of
approximately 3ºC (ACIA, 2004, Zhang et al, 2000) and an increase in precipitation of
roughly 8% (ACIA, 2004). This change in temperature and precipitation has resulted in
subsequent shifts in landscape conditions, which may increase the vulnerability of Yukon
communities to environmental stresses associated with variable weather, drought, food
and energy security, flooding and forest fire. These environmental stresses in turn carry
implications for northern infrastructure, the health of northern residents, and our
economy. Given the far reaching implications of climate change, the need to adapt our
communities to a changing and uncertain future grows ever more clear.
The Whitehorse Climate Change Adaptation Plan has been developed by the Northern
Climate ExChange (NCE) Community Climate Change Adaptation Project (CCCAP) and
funded by the Yukon Northern Strategy Trust. The mandate of CCCAP is to increase
the adaptive capacity of the Yukon to respond to climate change through the
development and implementation of adaptation plans in three communities, Dawson,
Whitehorse and Mayo.
The Whitehorse Community Adaptation Project, or WhiteCAP, consists of two distinct
phases: planning and implementation. The WhiteCAP plan is intended to assess how
climate change may positively or negatively affect the community over the next forty
years, to 2050. The methodology used in the planning process includes a modified form
of scenario planning and risk
assessment. The first half of the
planning process, which
focused on exploring multiple
scenarios of how the community
may change by 2050, is
presented in the companion
document for this plan: Future
Histories of Whitehorse:
Scenarios of Change. The
WhiteCAP plan reports on the
risk assessment portion of the
Whitehorse adaptation planning
process. Portions of the plan will
be implemented in the second
year of the project using funding
provided by the Northern
Strategy Trust.
Figure 1.1:
Whitehorse
Adaptation Plan
Context Map
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