Protecting people, creating opportunities, fostering biodiversity—that’s our promise to Toronto.

The Port Lands in Toronto was once one of the largest wetlands on Lake Ontario. However, beginning in the late 1800s, the area was gradually infilled to increase land availability for industry and shipping. Today, the Port Lands area sits within a designated floodplain, and all levels of the Canadian government have identified flood protection for the area as a top priority.

A challenging redevelopment of Toronto’s lakeshore

WSP is proud to be supporting the Port Lands Flood project (PLFP) since 2017, where we delivered a robust Master Stormwater Management Strategy that showcases Future Ready® thinking and entails leading-edge approaches to surface water management that avoids the pitfalls of traditional stormwater management approaches. Cognizant of the complexities of this highly ambitious, publicly funded project set out to transform Toronto’s Waterfront and economy, WSP provided due diligence investigation and conceptual design development of municipal infrastructure and stormwater management for the Lower Don Lands Precinct. Upholding the importance of minimizing the project’s adverse environmental impacts, WSP designed air quality, weather, noise, vibration, and surface water monitoring plans that allow continuous environmental surveillance through the full project life cycle. We also designed and implemented several web-based applications to facilitate remote, real-time monitoring 24/7, ensuring immediate mitigation of environmental impacts ad hoc.

It is an honour to take sustainable steps to revitalize our City’s landscapes and confer the site upon which the project will be realized and deliver many benefits for the City of Toronto.

The Port Lands Flood Protection project embodies principles aligned with WSP’s vision and mission to future-proof communities and shape them to thrive sustainably. In support of the project’s objective, which includes revitalizing the underutilized environment, mitigating the ever-increasing risks of floods, enhancing the quality of life, safeguarding the natural environment, and strengthening biodiversity, WSP will continue to provide a breadth of environmental, sustainability and advisory services. 

WSP looks forward to helping the project advance and to redesign Toronto for tomorrow today.