Webinar: Communicating Disaster Risk – An Evaluation of Publicly Accessible Disaster Maps in Canada

Webinar – Communicating disaster risk? An evaluation of publicly accessible flood maps in Canada

MEOPAR and CORC COP cordially invite you to a webinar presentation of recent research evaluating flood maps and their utility for communicating about flood risk in Canada.  You are welcome to share this invitation with other colleagues who may be interested.

When: Wednesday, May 8, 2019 (1 hr)
10 am PT / 1 pm ET / 2 pm AT / 2:30 pm / NL

REGISTER HERE

Description 
In a time of extreme weather, ageing infrastructure and increasing urban development, it is perhaps unsurprising that economic losses from floods are on the rise. A fundamental step to building resiliency is to identify risks in order to reduce and manage their consequences. This webinar will present new research on the information that is available to the public to identify their flood risk and act on it. Our research found that flood maps—information that is a cornerstone of flood risk management—is available to most surveyed communities but it is difficult to find, incomplete and it is normally highly technocratic. We argue that in a time when governments look to the public to reduce flood risk, user-friendly information and institutions need to be in place to support the public.

Presenters
Andrea Minano, PhD Candidate @Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo
Andrea is a specialist in Geographic Information Systems and has previously worked for municipal, provincial and federal governments as well as the insurance industry. Andrea’s research and work experience are highly interdisciplinary ranging from visualization of flood risk, community-based climate adaptation and flood risk management policy. Andrea’s current research focuses on public and private responsibilities in flood risk management and identifying opportunities for strengthening flood resiliency in Canada.

Jason Thistlethwaite, Associate Professor @School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, University of Waterloo
Jason’s research focuses on innovative strategies designed to reduce the economic impacts of extreme weather and climate change. He explores the role of insurance and government risk-transfer in promoting climate change adaptation and reducing economic vulnerability. To inform this work, he has worked directly with business and government leaders in the insurance, banking, real estate, building, and investment industries. Jason is also a frequent speaker, media contributor on Canada’s growing vulnerability to extreme weather, and a self-described “weather geek”. Check out a recent CBC article and interview with Jason on CBC’s The Current, April 3, 2019: ‘Get Used to Being Disrupted’)

We hope you can attend!