Water on the rise: Protecting Canadian homes from the growing threat of flooding

From 2016 to 2018, the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation (University of Waterloo) developed and tested the Home Flood Protection Program (HFPP), which is an initiative designed to provide homeowners with practical information necessary to identify and limit their risk of basement flooding.

A total of 510 HFPP assessments were completed. Ten flood risk assessors were trained in the province of Ontario, delivering 397 flood risk assessments in 2017 and 2018. Fueled by the success of the Ontario program, an additional two assessors were trained in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, delivering 113 assessments in 2018.

In Ontario, 72 percent of program participants were involved in a Home Flood Protection follow-up study. Its purpose was to determine the degree to which homeowners took action to limit flood risk based on information they received during their Home Flood Protection Assessment. 91 and 24 participants completed a three-month and six-month follow-up survey, respectively. The flood risk data featured in this report summarizes the results of these assessment reports and follow-up surveys.

Visual assessments of flood risks inside and outside of homes revealed several key flood protection features that did not meet best practice standards for reducing risk. This report also explores actions that homeowners could take to reduce risk, as well as opportunities to increase residential action to protect basements from flooding.