Centretown Climate Equity Voices

Community Perspectives on Climate, Accessibility & Resilience — Ecology Ottawa & CAWI Mapping Workshop, December 2025

In December 2025, Ecology Ottawa and CAWI brought Centretown residents together for a participatory mapping workshop as part of the Climate Equity Project, funded by the Ottawa Climate Action Fund in partnership with CAWI (City for All Women Initiative).

Using sticky notes on a physical map, community members shared their lived experiences, identifying places of care and comfort, areas to avoid, and how climate change shapes their daily lives. This story map transforms those 93 sticky notes into an interactive digital map, preserving community voices and revealing spatial patterns of climate vulnerability and resilience across the neighbourhood.

Explore the Map

Each point represents a community member's perspective, colour-coded by theme. Click any point to read the original comment from the workshop. Use the legend to filter by theme. Zoom in to explore spatial patterns: where do safety concerns cluster? Which areas lack green space? How does climate change show up differently across Centretown?

Prepared by Prosper Ocheme & Powered by Esri — Centretown Climate Equity Map, Ecology Ottawa & CAWI

What the Community Told Us

The geocoded points reveal clear spatial patterns across 11 themes:

🟢 Positive experiences

• Peaceful spaces: places of calm and relaxation (16 mentions)
• Connection: community hubs, walkable streets, social spaces (11 mentions)
• Greenspaces: parks, trees, nature access (2 mentions)

🔴 Climate & environmental concerns

• Climate change: heat impacts, extreme weather, climate anxiety (10 mentions)
• Air quality: pollution concerns (2 mentions)

🟠 Safety & accessibility

• Safety concerns: areas to avoid, fear, crime (4 mentions)
• Accessibility: winter clearing, wheelchair access, mobility barriers (3 mentions)

🔵 Infrastructure

• Transit & biking: bus reliability, bike lanes, active transportation (4 mentions)
• Rideau Canal: skating, recreation, seasonal access (4 mentions)

⚫ Other issues

• Homelessness (2 mentions)
• Substance use (2 mentions)
• Other (11 mentions)

In Their Own Words

🟢 On peaceful spaces:

• "Peaceful, relaxed, connected." — Arboretum
• "The Alliance Française, because it's where I met my partner." — Waverley & O'Connor

🔴 On climate change:

• "Climate change causes utility charges to increase, damage to trees and bushes. Worry over old roofs damaged by climate change, causing rent increases due to needing funds to fix the damage to buildings."
• "Heat waves: felt unable to go outside in 40° weather, isolating.

🟠 On safety and accessibility:

• "They don't clear the sidewalks of snow, and it can damage our wheelchairs and walkers. The snow plows don't care, they just throw snow at us!"
  "Spent less time in my local parks (Dundonald & McNabb) when it's extremely hot."

🔵 On transit:

• "Unreliable bus/OC Transpo."
  "Great new intersection set up for bikes, separate green light for bikes, yay!"

⚫ On community connection:

• "Community gardens, local markets."
• "We have our own AC, but it makes my hydro bill go up. You have to be really careful with that."

What This Means for Climate Equity

It shows spatial patterns of inequity. This mapping exercise reveals something important about climate vulnerability in Centretown: community feedback isn't random. It clusters in specific areas, showing where infrastructure gaps and climate impacts hit hardest, safety concerns concentrated in certain pockets, climate anxiety and heat stress surfacing repeatedly, and winter accessibility barriers shutting residents out of public space entirely.

It showcases care as climate action. As Ecology Ottawa frames it: care is climate resilience and emissions reduction. When transit is unreliable, people are pushed to drive cars instead, and greenhouse gas emissions rise. When tree canopy is neglected, urban heat islands worsen. When sidewalks go uncleared, mobility-limited residents stay isolated indoors, using more energy to stay warm and cool.

What's Next

This map isn't the end, it's a tool. Ecology Ottawa and CAWI are using this spatial data to advocate for equitable climate adaptation policies, identify priority neighbourhoods for green infrastructure investment, and ensure community voices inform Ottawa's Official Plan and climate strategies.

To learn more about Ecology Ottawa's  climate equity work, visit ecologyottawa.ca.