Disaster Resilience Initiative

Colwood is working to engage our community in building Disaster Resilience through Disaster Risk Reduction & Climate Adaptation strategies.

What is the Disaster Resilience initiative about?

With grant support from the UBCM Community Emergency Preparedness Fund, the City is taking action to increase community safety and well-being by updating our disaster/emergency preparedness and developing plans for disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation. We’ll be engaging the public and key partners as we work on interconnected projects that are expected to conclude in January 2026.

Why is Disaster Resilience important?

Locally and globally, we are experiencing (and/or have increased risk for) more frequent and intense natural hazards like extreme heat, heavy rainfall, severe storms, drought, floods, and wildfires.

The City is responding to new provincial legislation, approaches, and upcoming municipal requirements. This includes increasing and integrating emergency planning, disaster risk reduction, and climate adaptation.

Planning and risk reduction is critical for the well-being of our community and has many co-benefits.

What is the City doing to build Disaster Resilience?

Colwood has strong Emergency Planning practices led by the Colwood Fire Department and City teams. In 2024 the City began the “Disaster Resilience Initiative”, a suite of projects to address disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation. This equity-informed process involves community assessments, City planning and policy development, increasing capacity through training, assessing and building resources and partnerships, as well as increasing community engagement.

With funding from the UBCM Community Emergency Preparedness Fund, Colwood’s Disaster Resilience Initiative deliverables include:

• Community Risk Assessment
• Local reviews: Sendai Framework and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
• Training sessions for Staff and Elected Officials
• Strategic Foresight processes
• Disaster Risk Reduction Plan (with visioning and policy development)
• Mental Health Resilience Strategy
• Pilot use of equity tools for equity-informed processes
• Public education/ outreach tools and events
• Related public art and installation process
• Nature-based solutions best practices with policies and staff training

The City of Colwood is committed to reducing the negative impacts of climate change and disasters on our community, economy, and natural environment. This initiative is part of the City’s Climate Action Plan and our response to the new provincial Emergency and Disaster Management Act. We’re working with the community and partners to anticipate and reduce risks, address vulnerabilities, and build on the strengths within our community and region.

Get involved - Opportunities for participation

There are a variety of ways Colwood residents and community members can be involved in this project. This project page will be updated with announcements for future opportunities, including:

• Stakeholder workshops
• Community Open House
• Online feedback & story submissions
• Public Art Submissions & Installation
• Community Events (TBA)

Watch for updates and announcements on this page and through the Colwood website, social media, Colwood Connection newsletter, notices in the newspaper, and other communication channels.