Too small to fail: Protecting Canadian communities from floods

Flooding is a challenge of financial and social concern affecting a growing sector of the Canadian population. Multiple factors affect flood risk, such as a general increase in population density in urban and sub-urban centres, the loss of natural landscape impacting all provinces, growth in the impermeability of primarily city landscapes, all of which can be coupled with more intense and longer lasting storms driven by a changing climate. Despite the foreboding picture these factors paint, there are nonetheless many practical actions that may be deployed to mitigate flood risk. 

The purpose of this report is threefold:

1. To outline the imperative for flood risk reduction in Canada;
2. To provide examples of practical flood risk mitigation initiatives that can be deployed in communities across the country;
3. To highlight key factors that can influence the success of flood risk mitigation efforts.