New tool hopes to help municipalities better prepare for floods

An abandoned car in a mall parking lot is seen in floodwater following a major rain event in Halifax on Saturday, July 22, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

A new tool aims to make it easier for Canadian municipalities to access information about flood hazards and be better prepared.

Called “The Municipal Flood Risk Check Up,” it was developed in Waterloo Region through the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation and the University of Waterloo.

“This is hopefully going to be a catalyst for action at the municipal scale,” says Joanna Eyquem, managing director of Climate-Resilient Infrastructure at the Intact Centre.

The hope is to make it easier to be prepared for Mother Nature’s forces.

“It is a broad-based assessment so that people can get to know what their flood risks are in terms of river, costal or intense rainfall risks and how they’re preparing,” added Eyquem.

The tool took two years to develop with insight from 53 people, all levels of government and multiple municipalities.

“It includes large municipalities who already are a fair way along their flood risk management journey, as well as smaller missing parties who have less resources... and so this tool is designed with those concerns in mind,” says Eyquem.

Using the checklist as a roadmap to reduce risk, could be used as another resource in municipalities’ toolboxes. Jo-Anne Rzadki is with Conservation Ontario and was a part of the team who developed it.

“We’re really interested in learning about how the municipalities respond to it in Ontario. We think that many of the boxes will be checked off in Ontario and so we’re interested in seeing how we compare to the rest of the country,” said Rzadki.

The idea is that municipalities could use the tool prior to finalizing their budgets in order to better allocate funding for preparedness for the upcoming season. With a few easy steps, staff can assess flood management risks.

“That’s one reason for continuing the investment in the flood management program conservation authorities implement in Ontario, and then maybe help to recommend where more resources could be allocated to continue to reduce that risk,” added Rzadki.

The tool is now live and is completely free. It can be accessed through the Intact Center on Climate Adaptation website.