The road to flood resilience in Canada

This publication presents an assessment of flood risk in Canada, estimating that severe events could cause losses exceeding  CAD 13 billion, with less than half of these covered by insurance.

The report further explores how concerted action across the risk management chain can strengthen flood resilience in Canada, by involving all key stakeholders -government, the insurance industry and homeowners. Suggested approaches to manage flood risk using physical, social and economic means include:

• Zoning laws, mitigating risk by restricting construction in the most exposed locations and encouraging it in low-risk areas;
• Flood control, which includes structural (dykes, levees) as well as non-structural (awareness raising) measures;
• Emergency response, improved by early warning systems and pre-agreed emergency plans;
• Insurance, transferring financial risk away from business and homeowners to the insurance industry.