The National Risk Profile Report released by the federal government on Thursday shows that 80% of Canadian cities are in flood zones, raising the question: Are we adequately prepared for floods?
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Yannick Émond, professor of resilience, risk and disasters in UQAM’s geography department, believes Quebec is in a good position but needs to improve in the coming years.
“It’s very difficult to prepare for it. Overall, we have a good level of preparation in Quebec, but we can still do better,” he said. To do this, we must use the next few years to think about changing behavior, among other things.”
The expert explains that it is not only the areas that are considered floodable that are at risk of flooding.
“When we say we are not in a flood zone, there are certain places where we have built protective infrastructure, such as the famous dikes, which means that when we do the risk assessments, the risk of flooding is is very low “We say we’re not in a flood zone, but we are,” he says.
“We built a dyke to protect ourselves and when the dyke gives way, which was the case in Baie-Saint-Paul, among other places, we end up in neighborhoods that shouldn’t normally be flooded but are flooded because of the dyke. “Give in,” adds the expert.
The latter believes that adaptation investments will be necessary in the coming years.
The municipalities are asking the government for two billion US dollars over a period of five years.
“Two billion would be just the beginning,” says the professor. It was not accepted but we know it will cost much more. By 2050, 216 million people worldwide will be leaving their homes, so Canada will see many moving.
In addition to flooding, an increase in other extreme phenomena is to be expected.
“We have to reckon with more extreme phenomena, such as winter snowstorms,” he says. It’s going to be sweltering here too. We know that there will be more and more days when the temperature is above 30 degrees. In the year 2050 it is expected that there will be more than 70 days a year. And we have to be careful about the ground movements and the flooding.
Watch the full interview in the video above