Flooding is the most damaging and most costly climate change risk in Canada. Asset owners planning flood defense are faced with several challenges and choices, including potential investments in dry and/or wet floodproofing, stormwater detention systems, drainage improvements, flood barriers, retention basins, as well as natural flood management options, early warning systems and guaranteed flood response contracts.
Flood Risk
Steve Van Haren and Chris Godsall are seated in the head office of NOAH Intelligence, looking out the window at Union Station across the street. The co-founders have very different backgrounds, but you could easily assume they’ve known each other all their lives – and might comfortably finish the other’s sentences.
“The flooding last summer – and in 2013 and 2018 – was predictable,” says Van Haren, a former Principal Water Resources Engineer with WSP. He points to the train station that was shut down last July 16th when three hours of heavy rain from trailing thunderstorms caused widespread flooding in Toronto (and $990 million of property damage).
The answer is No (and Yes).
Last July 16th, a summer rainstorm swept into Southern Ontario and seemed to pause over Toronto. Three hours later, flooding had displaced 500,000 people and caused damage that experts say could reach $4 billion (including $990 million of insured losses). That’s roughly $1.3 billion per hour of rain. A month later, another once-in-a-century storm hit Ontario just days after catastrophic flooding in Quebec resulted in over 70,000 insurance claims