Although in climatic terms one year does not make a trend, the weather conditions of the year 2023 allow us to wonder about the years to come. We know without a doubt that we will have to face the 21e century to climatic upheavals. Even if we significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, the problems would take decades to resolve. If we want to avoid human, financial and environmental crises, we must therefore adapt our infrastructure.
Phytotechnologies are one of the quick and effective ways to adapt our immediate environment. These are various developments that use plants to solve environmental problems. Green roof, rainwater management, filter marshes, riparian strips, slope stabilization, phytoremediation, etc., all these solutions are phytotechnologies. As its name suggests, it is an alliance of technology and plants (phytos).
This fairly recent concept (it emerged in the 2000s) was naturally proposed by biologists and people working in horticulture. They were the ones who made these first techniques known and experimented. In 2008, the Société québécoise de phytotechnologie helped develop the concepts and make them known. However, today, if we truly want to accelerate the implementation of environmental adaptation techniques such as phytotechnologies, we need broader collaboration with architects, engineers, urban planners, etc. Unfortunately, there is no organization or consultation table that would bring together these professionals in order to better develop and coordinate phytotechnologies.
Let’s take the case of a building as an example. It is the architect who will decide whether or not there will be a green roof and planted terraces. It is the engineer who will make the load calculations so that the building can support these developments. It is the landscape architect who will design the arrangements and the horticulturist who will carry them out. If all these professionals talk to each other at the very beginning of the project, or follow good collaborative practices, we can avoid a lot of costs and loss of time.
I therefore dream of the day when members of the Order of Architects, the Association of Architects in Private Practice of Quebec, the Order of Engineers, the Association of Consulting Engineering Firms of Quebec, the Association of Municipal Engineers of Quebec, the Order of Town Planners, the Quebec Town Planning Association, the Association of Town and Municipal Planners of Quebec, the Association of Landscape Architects of Quebec and the Société québécoise de phytotechnologies will join forces in a vast project to enable rapid and effective implementation of climate change adaptation projects.
Who will take the lead in such a consultation? One of these associations or an interministerial committee (housing, health, municipalities, environment, etc.)? Time will tell. However, the regrouping of all these forces is urgent, even very urgent. The worrying situation in our environment requires rapid and effective interprofessional collaboration in order to reduce human tragedies. In short, there is a collaborative emergency.