WC145 NovDec 2025 - Magazine - Page 18
FLOOD MITIGATION
Predicting the
Next Flood
How Canadian cities are turning to
technology to stay ahead
BY SHREEJIT SHELAR
LOODING ON JULY 16, 2024, highlighted
Toronto’s flood-related vulnerabilities, causing
more than $940 million in insured losses, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC).
Streets, basements, and transit systems were overwhelmed within hours, underscoring the fragility of the
city’s infrastructure when faced with extreme rainfall.
As climate change and rapid urbanization drive heavier,
less predictable storms, Canadian cities are turning to predictive flood mapping in an effort to stay one step ahead.
F
Shreejit Shelar is a Contemporary Journalism
graduate from Centennial College specializing
in environmental reporting, climate resilience,
and community-driven issues.
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WATER C AN ADA • NOV EMBER/ DECEMBER 2025
Getty Images
Canada’s push for better flood mapping
The Canadian government has ramped up efforts to
prepare for one of the country’s most frequent and
costly natural disasters with the launch of the Flood
Hazard Identification and Mapping Program (FHIMP)
in January 2022.
Led by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), in
partnership with Environment and Climate Change
Canada and Public Safety Canada, the program has received $63.8 million from 2021 to 2024 and a further
$164.2 million for 2024 to 2028, according to NRCan
spokesperson Devin Baines. So far, this funding has
supported more than 330 flood mapping projects and
produced over 1,000 updated hazard maps. It has also
advanced new methods for hydrologic analysis that account for climate change, improved hydrologic models,
and created high-resolution geospatial datasets at both
national and regional scales.
The program’s goal is to give governments, communities, and individuals access to reliable, publicly
available data to better understand flood risks, improve
land-use planning, and develop mitigation strategies
with resources that could help cities like Toronto prepare for the next major storm.
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
