Risk and Resilience: A Case of Perception versus Reality in Flood Management

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.

Floods and the COVID‐19 pandemic—A new double hazard problem

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Application of the Systems Approach to the Management of Complex Water Systems

“…The three contributions by Rehana et al [13], Agrawal et al [14], and Sabbaghian and Nejadhashemi [15] bring uncertainty into the discussion of complex water resources systems management. Rehana et al appraise the quantification of uncertainties in systems modeling in India and discuss various water resource management and operation models.…”

Perception risk, preventive behaviors and assessing the relationship between their various dimensions: A cross-sectional study in the Covid-19 peak period

“…Perceptions and methods of adapting to disasters are critical to the sustainability and resilience of society. Risk perception and improving individual and collective resiliency are important components in disaster risk management [ 1 , 2 ]. The main role in risk management is played by risk perception [ [3] , [4] , [5] ].…”