Govt.FloodSolutions Flashcards
Why was the Task Force on Flood Insurance and Relocation established?
To explore solutions for high-risk areas and potential relocation strategies (note that the task force prioritized engagement with Indigenous communities)
Identify and briefly describe 3 types of flooding
Fluvial (river flooding)
- when the water level in a river, lake or stream rises and overflows onto the neighboring land
Pluvial
- when an extreme rainfall event creates a flood independent of an overflowing water body
Coastal
- when dry and low-lying land is submerged by seawater
Identify 5 priority areas for action under EMS (Emergency Management Strategy)
- Enhance whole-of-society collaboration and governance to strengthen resilience
- Improve understanding of disaster risks in all sectors of society
- Increase focus on whole-of-society disaster prevention and mitigation activities
- Enhance disaster response capacity and coordination and foster the development of new capabilities
- Strengthen recovery efforts by building back better to minimize the impacts of future disasters
What does Priority 3 include as a priority outcome?
FPT governments assist in the development of options for sharing the financial risks of disasters
- could include engaging the private sector to develop an affordable private flood insurance model for the entire population, including clear incentives for mitigation of flood risks
Define the term “risk” in the context of disasters
Disaster risk is the combination of the likelihood and the consequence of a specified hazard being realized
Identify and briefly describe the key drivers of Canada’s flood risk
Population growth and urban development:
- Urban densification in flood-prone areas contributes to flood risk (70% of Canada’s population)
- Urban centers are more prone to flood risks due to their location on or near floodplains and coastlines
Climate Change:
- Heat-induced risks - heat promotes wildfires and droughts, destroying vegetation and increasing runoff
- Extreme precipitation - due to warmer temperatures (creates pluvial risk, especially in urban areas with impermeable surfaces that can’t absorb water)
- Accelerated Warming - Canada’s climate is warming twice as fast as the global rate
- Rising Sea Levels - coastal flooding
Identify 3 problems pertaining to flood insurance in Canada
High cost (especially for low-income households)
- Recent flood events cause increased premiums and possibly withdrawal of coverage altogether
Low Risk Awareness
- Information about floods, including flood maps, may be unavailable
Misaligned incentives
- Taxpayer-funded DFA programs contribute to moral hazard (because people may rely on that instead of buying insurance)
Fully describe 3 problems due to low risk awareness of Canadians in high-risk areas
- When and where flood insurance is available, Canadians may not purchase it due to a lack of awareness of their level of flood risk, or they may erroneously assume flood risk is covered by standard home insurance.
- Homeowners who have purchased optional flood coverage may not have sufficient protection for the amount of risk they face
- Unfortunately, only after an event that homeowners discover they are under/un-insured. - Low-risk awareness means homeowners are less likely to make investments in property-level protections for flooding, whether or not they have insurance.
Fully describe the moral hazards associated with misaligned incentives regarding flood risks in Canada
In general:
- A moral hazard is the expectation that governments will provide post-disaster financial assistance (regardless of poor decisions by individuals and communities on where to build)
In particular:
- Homeowners: at the homeowner level, DFA doesn’t encourage risk reduction or insurance purchase
- Communities: at the community level, local governments & developers, benefit from property sales & tax revenues, but flood recovery costs fall largerly on other levels of government
- Regional & national: Cost-sharing of disaster recovery reduces incentives for risk reduction (which may include expensive infrastructure)
Provide 3 examples of things outside the scope of the Task Force on Flood & Relocation’s report
- Federal commitment to complete all flood maps in Canada
- Federal commitment to provide interest free loans to homeowners for climate change mitigation and adaptation improvements to their domicile
- Promote flood risk awareness in Canada through a public-facing information portal
Briefly describe the concept of FRM (Flood Risk Management) (4)
- An alternative approach to conventional flood control measures
- Promotes the use of non-structural mitigation measures to complement and enhance other types of mitigation
- Stakeholders include: government, industry, communities, non-government organizations, individuals
- An iterative process of: acting, monitoring, reviewing, adapting
Regarding FRM (Flood Risk Mgmt), identify the roles & responsibilities of: federal government
Roles:
- Support provincial/local efforts to mitigate/manage flood emergencies
Responsibilities:
- Monitor/manage emergencies in their respective areas of responsibility
- Financial assistance through the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangement
Regarding FRM (Flood Risk Mgmt), identify the roles & responsibilities of: Provincial/Territorial government
Roles:
- Regulate insurers
- Implement land use & flood risk management policies
Responsibilities:
- Make infrastructure investments
- Develop flood maps
Regarding FRM (Flood Risk Mgmt), identify the roles & responsibilities of: Municipal government
Roles:
- Collaborate with PT governments to identify flood risks
- Lead local response and recovery during emergencies
Responsibilities:
- Enforce local construction and land-use by-laws
- Invest in structural and non-structural flood mitigation
Regarding FRM (Flood Risk Mgmt), identify the roles & responsibilities of: Indigenous Communities
Roles:
- Develop community emergency management plans
- Coordinate with all other stakeholders
Responsibilities:
- Address unique challenges (geographical, social/cultural) particularly in northern & remote communities
- Ensure that emergency management plans are implemented and maintained
Regarding FRM (Flood Risk Mgmt), identify the roles & responsibilities of: Insurance Industry
Roles:
- Provide flood insurance
- Data collection, research, public outreach
Responsibilities:
- Offer overland flood endorsements (fluvial, pluvial flooding, coastal coverage remains limited)
- Incentivize policyholders to engage in risk reduction (shift economic recovery burden away from DFA)
Regarding FRM (Flood Risk Mgmt), identify the roles & responsibilities of: Non-Governmental Organizations
Roles:
- Act as initial responders during flood incidents
Responsibilities:
- Coordinate volunteers in recovery efforts
Regarding FRM (Flood Risk Mgmt), identify the roles & responsibilities of: Communities & Individuals
Roles:
- Seek information to understand their property’s flood risk
- Pay taxes to support governmental relief
Responsibilities:
- Purchase flood insurance
- Cover their own uninsured losses
Identify the necessary preconditions for success of a private flood insurance market
- improved Public awareness of flood risk
- Accurate and up-to-date flood mapping across Canada
- adequate and ongoing Investments in public and private flood defences
- Limited or restructured post-disaster financial assistance to encourage flood mitigation investments
Identify prevention and mitigation measures an individual household can implement (4) (Benefit-to-cost: 11:1)
- Installing a backwater valve
- Having a basement sump pump
- Maintaining appropriate lot grading
- Clearing eavestroughs and extending downspouts
Identify prevention and mitigation measures a community can implement (3) (Benefit-to-cost: 6:1)
- Adopt climate-resilient best practices for: regulations, land use, urban planning, development
- Upgrade infrastructure
- Invest in natural infrastructure
Identify prevention and mitigation measures that can be implemented on a national level (4) (Benefit-to-cost: 7:1)
- Stricter building codes
- Improved flood risk information
- Investments in climate resilience (Ex: infrastructure resilience, environmental resilience)
- Funding for watershed level mitigation projects
Describe the concept of strategic relocation (4)
- Buy a high-risk property (government if often the buyer)
- Remove assets from high-risk property
- Restore site to undeveloped state
- Repurpose site as green infrastructure to better absorb floodwater (further reduces flood risk)
Identify the inputs for the PS (Public Safety) approach for estimating flood damages (3)
Flood hazard:
- Refers to extent, magnitude (such as water depth or flow velocity) and probability of occurrence
Flood Exposure:
- Refers to the people, property, infrastructure and other social or economic assets which may become affected by flood hazard
Consequence (Flood Damages):
- How much damage floodwater is likely to cause to particular exposured people or assets
Identify the output for the PS (Public Safety) approach for estimating flood damages
Risk
- Estimates of average annual loss (AAL) from flooding as well as return-period level losses for residential properties in Canada
Briefly discuss the methodology for estimating flood hazards
Canada has 2 types of flood hazard information:
- Local regulatory flood mapping
- Broad-coverage models mainly used by insurance firms
Regulatory mapping is very accurate but available only in select areas
Broad coverage models provide nationwide data (including flood depths for standard return periods and diverse flood types)
Both were used for the estimation of flood hazard across Canada, due to their specific advantages in some areas
Identify 3 advantages of broad-coverage models over local regulatory flood mapping
- Nationwide coverage
- Provides flood depths for standard return periods
- Captures different flood types of fluvial, pluvial and coastal
Briefly discuss the methodology for estimating flood exposure (3)
Requires a comprehensive residential properties database (on the “block” level of 20-30 properties)
- Variety of databases were procured, combined and evaluated for completeness
Information was then combined with building attributes, informed risk and flood susceptibility
Finally, dataset was further broken down to individual households for consequence estimation
Briefly discuss the methodology for estimating consequences
Relate flood depths in the models to estimate flood losses of residential properties
- This is done using depth-damage models
Was then possible to create 6 unique estimates of AAL expected from flooding per residential address across Canada, with two estimates of average annual loss in the northern portions of Canada.
Briefly discuss the outputs of the flood damage assessment
- Estimates of AAL for residential properties throughout Canada based on the best available data.
- Mean of 6 different damage estimates was used at each location to combine the intelligence from numerous flood damage model (this is more robust than having just 1 estimate)
Identify the advantages of the flood damage analysis
- Involvement of 3 different operational flood hazard models currently in use by the Canadian insurance industry
- Use of highest quality residential address database currently possible using several input datasets
- Implementation of 4 different operational flood damage estimation methodologies
Identify the design characteristics of flood insurance programs (4)
- Administration: Role of Government vs Role of Private Insurers
- Choice: Voluntary or Compulsory
- Packaging: Standalone Product or Bundled with Other Perils
- Premiums: Risk-based or Uniform Pricing
