Storm watch: City planners in St. John's prepare for climate change

The City of St. John's says a 20 per centincrease in rainfall over the past decade means it has to make significant changes and prepare for climate change.

• Record-setting rainfall soaks eastern Newfoundland

Planning and development manager Jason Sinyardsaid the city has issued new design criteria for builders who develop storm infrastructure.

From now on developers who build culverts, storm sewers, bridges, and storm-water retention facilities will have to increase their sizes to accommodate heavierrainfall.

Sinyard saidthe city has not updated its storm infrastructure criteria in a decade.

"You need to ensure they are built with the capacity to handle the rainfall that you are experiencing now, and the rainfall that you expect to get over the life of the project," he told the St. John's Morning Show on Thursday.

"The way the city has factored climate change into the new rainfall data is a fairly direct way to adjust."

Sinyard said St. John's is also looking for other ways to reduce its environmental footprint.

"A number of years ago we installed a gas collection system in the landfill [at Robin Hood Bay] to collect the gas and flare it instead of just letting it release into the atmosphere," he said.

"Just that initiative alone has had a major impact."

Sinyard saidjust this past week, the city ordered a tender to expand the gas collection system to capture and flare more gas at the landfill.