Abstract
Canada’s vast regions are reacting to climate change in uncertain ways. Understanding of local disaster risks and knowledge of underlying causes for negative impacts of disasters are critical factors to working toward a resilient environment across the social, economic, and the built sectors. Historically, floods have caused more economical and social damage around the world than other types of natural hazards. Since the 1900s, the most frequent hazards in Canada have been floods, wildfire, drought, and extreme cold, in terms of economic damage. The recent flood events in the Canadian provinces of Ontario, New Brunswick, Quebec, Alberta, and Manitoba have raised compelling concerns. These include should communities be educated with useful knowledge on hazard risk and resilience so they would be interested in the discussion on the vital role they can play in building resilience in their communities. Increasing awareness that perceived risk can be very different from the real threat is the motivation behind this study. The main objectives of this study include identifying and quantifying the gap between people’s perception of exposure and susceptibility to the risk and a lack of coping capacity and objective assessment of risk and resilience, as well as estimating an integrated measure of disaster resilience in a community. The proposed method has been applied to floods as an example, using actual data on the geomorphology of the study area, including terrain and low lying regions. It is hoped that the study will encourage a broader debate if a unified strategy for disaster resilience would be feasible and beneficial in Canada.
Highlights
The impacts of geo-hydrologic hazards in the last two decades of the 20th century were felt by three-quarters of the population worldwide [1]
Past studies intended to focus on disaster response founded on a top-down approach, but the focus has shifted to a community-based approach [3,4,5,6,7,8,9] that stresses resilience building
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SF-disaster risk reduction (DRR)) 2015–2030 [11] serves as a continuum to the commitment supported by the United Nations
Summary
The impacts of geo-hydrologic hazards in the last two decades of the 20th century were felt by three-quarters of the population worldwide [1]. Since the 1900s, the most economically damaging disasters from natural causes in Canada were floods, wildfires, drought, and extreme cold. Past studies intended to focus on disaster response founded on a top-down approach, but the focus has shifted to a community-based approach [3,4,5,6,7,8,9] that stresses resilience building. After the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), 2005–2015 [10] launched a movement for building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SF-DRR) 2015–2030 [11] serves as a continuum to the commitment supported by the United Nations
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