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Why Natural Infrastructure is Key to Effective Water Management 


In fact, in a survey conducted by CWWA, over 80% of national respondents recognize natural infrastructure as a possible solution to their current infrastructure challenges. Survey results also revealed that those who are currently implementing NI are doing so to address core needs like stormwater management, flood and erosion mitigation, and water quality improvements.

Last fall, we joined Carl Bodimeade, Chair of CWWA’s Utility Leadership Committee—along with Dimple Roy, Director of Water Management at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and Duane Nicol, CAO at the City of Selkirk—at the National Water and Wastewater Conference to discuss opportunities to address water service delivery with NI.

With a special focus on the Canadian Prairies, our panel explored our need for NI, what communities are doing, and where the rest of us can start. Here are the key takeaways we’re bringing into 2025.

Here’s the situation: 30% of Canada’s grey water infrastructure is in fair to very poor condition, and climate change is exacerbating flood and drought risk in Canada’s prairie provinces. At the conference, Dimple Roy spoke to IISD’s State of Play report which states that climate impacts will further burden our already-degraded built infrastructure systems, especially when investments in infrastructure often fail to consider predicted climate risks.

This is where natural infrastructure comes in. NI—which includes everything from natural assets like intact forests and wetlands, to human-constructed natural features like rain gardens and bioswales—can deliver core infrastructure services that local governments are required to provide their citizens. Healthy riparian areas can mitigate erosion and filter water pollutants; wetlands can store excess water, which helps to minimize flooding, and even support agricultural producers by retaining water on the landscape for livestock. 

Unlike built infrastructure assets such as dikes or culverts, NI provides many other benefits like improved biodiverse habitats and recreational opportunities. Most importantly, natural infrastructure solutions, whether they’re used to substitute or complement built assets, often improve climate-resilience and provide better protect service delivery against climate impacts than grey-only infrastructure.

NI encompasses a range of effective, customizable tools for watershed management—and in the case of natural assets, these are tools that already exist that we can leverage for long-term benefits.

Natural Assets illustration
Examples of services provided by natural assets, a subcategory of natural infrastructure. Image taken from NAI’s Guide to Integrating Natural Asset Management in Local Government Plans (2024).

The good news is that, if we view NI as a tool, there’s more than one way to apply it—and some local governments are already leading the way. 

At the conference, Duane Nicol briefed the audience on how his team at Selkirk, Manitoba (pop. ~11,000) are “doing the doing” on natural infrastructure through org-wide integration. Our previous article on Selkirk provides a deep dive on how this ‘revolutionary evolution’ came to be, but in short, the city’s revamped asset management by-law requires them to seek more NI solutions and substitutions where nature could provide comparable services to built infrastructure. This has supported number of practical changes, including:

  • A Tree Inventory & Street Tree Policy to proactively manage trees for their cost-effective infrastructure services, including shade provision and reducing damaging ultraviolet rays on road infrastructure, improving air quality and removing CO², and even increasing property values.
  • Planting new trees and integrating stormwater runoff capture capabilities to water said trees as a part of the Evaline Street Reconstruction project; the trees serve as a cost-effective measure to manage and retain stormwater, beautify the area, and shade adjacent businesses, reducing their need for air conditioning.
  • Naturalizing sections along their roadways, such as the wildflower boulevard on Main Street; converting these areas from lawns to shrubs, prairie grasses, and other self-sustaining plants means they require less watering, are more drought tolerant, and no longer need mowing. Considering the city spends about 300 hours mowing per week, this move frees staff and resources so they can address other services.

For Nicol, these investments make the most sense for addressing Selkirk’s needs and ensuring quality services can be sustained long term. The returns aren’t just increasing greenspace, but lessening strain on built infrastructure, reducing operational costs, and improving life for the citizens and businesses in Selkirk.

Other Prairie communities are also making headway with NI for better water management:

  • The City of Wetaskiwin, AB, upgraded their road drainage system with street-side bioretention cells, which absorb stormwater and reduce flood risk. The design also integrated traffic-calming elements and curbside appeal. 
  • Sagkeeng First Nation planted hundreds of trees along the banks of the Winnipeg River as part of a shoreline stabilization project. The trees’ root systems help to mitigate erosion and reduce the amount of pollutant runoff to the river.

These are just a few examples of how communities are using NI to address their needs while providing provide multiple benefits beyond the main service priority.

Bioswale in Milwaukee
Example of a bioswale being used to manage the flow of stormwater and filter runoff from the adjacent street. Aaron Volkening under Creative Commons license BY 2.0

“Extreme weather impacts are beating down our doors every year. Now is the time to accelerate natural infrastructure to help buffer those impacts,” said Roy Brooke, noting that NAI is developing methodologies, standards, and tools to help communities make progress and recognize nature as infrastructure. 

As mentioned, CWWA’s statement on the adoption of natural infrastructure in the water sector further cements (or better yet, roots) NI as a realistic and important solution to tackle water management challenges in the Prairies. We just need to use it. 

This may seem like a daunting task for those just getting started, but there is a path forward. Begin by taking stock of your current needs and water-related issues; NI approaches incorporate a variety of scalable, tailorable solutions that can fit your unique context, and there are multiple resources and organizations that local governments (and others) can leverage.

  • IISD’s Natural Infrastructure for Water Solutions (NIWS) initiative provides a wide range of support, case studies, and research to help communities and the industry scale up NI across Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.
  • NAI publishes natural asset management guidance and local-level project reports to support others in integrating nature alongside built infrastructure as a part of effective asset management practices. Our Roadmap Program supports communities in beginning to understand their capacities, goals, and next steps towards natural asset management.
  • ClimateWest offers tools, training, and capacity building in climate risk management, including resilient agricultural practices.
  • The North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance supports leadership in watershed management through collaborative projects and tools like their Shoreline Naturalization Guide.

National  funding programs for NI and climate-resilient infrastructure are also available, including the  Federation of Canadian Municipalities Green Municipal Fund’s Local Leadership in Climate Adaptation Program and tree planting funding, the federal government’s Nature-Smart Climate Solutions Fund, and even its Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund, which can be used towards natural infrastructure that provides services to improve housing capacity.

As the conference panelists stressed, natural infrastructure is picking up steam, but there is still more to be done. In addition to starting NI discussions in your own community, collaboration across disciplines in the water sector is necessary to address barriers and implement water solutions across the Prairies, especially in response to increasing flood, drought, and other climate impacts. 

Prairie communities are already showing how NI can solve real water management challenges. By working with nature—not just concrete and pipes—we can address flooding, reduce infrastructure costs, and build more resilient local systems. The path forward isn’t about choosing between natural and built infrastructure, but smartly integrating both to meet our evolving environmental and community needs.

view of calm waters through tree branches

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