Spatial dashboards of socio-economic and population consequences in flood-prone areas

The management of the 2017 and 2019 floods in Quebec highlighted the many consequences of such events. Municipal and regional authorities must maintain the management capacity to reduce impacts on the population and on the socio-economic environment. To better understand these impacts, a consequence-based approach can be adopted. The project aims to systematize such an approach by developing a specific methodology for evaluating the consequences on populations and on local economic activities, adapted to any type of flood, whether springtime or exceptional.

The main objective of the project is to develop spatial dashboards of the risks related to floods in an area.
To accomplish this, the following sub-objectives will be met :

• Document a methodology for characterizing floodplains

• Develop spatial indices of population and socio-economic vulnerability linked to flood ratings

• Document the mechanisms for extracting and processing the data available in an area

• Develop a spatial and non-spatial database architecture for population and socio-economic vulnerability indices

A dynamic methodological approach will ensure that the research is rapidly deployed with our collaborators. An action research method will serve as the main framework for the project. It consists of four main iterative steps: the definition of a problem, the development of solutions, the proposal of solutions, and then the validation of the solutions. This method is based on collaboration between all the stakeholders involved in a project and is carried out in the form of incremental cycles.

To strengthen and properly structure this collaboration, tools based on the flexible systems method will be used. The aim is to map field-based knowledge through modelling and simulation workshops to fully understand the multi-criteria and multi-level nature of the decision-making of the various stakeholders in the field.

This project has demonstrated the importance of a consequences-based approach to managing vulnerabilities. The dashboard for the Centre local de développement de Brome-Missisquoi provides a quick overview of the most problematic areas to help target interventions. Information from the dashboard can also be used to visualize the alternatives that are available to businesses and to indicate the training they need, especially in terms of business continuity. The involvement of civil protection authorities in this initiative is still in its infancy, but the data that has been gathered suggests a number of different avenues for collaboration.

In addition, work with the Ville de Québec civil protection office has made it possible for traditional population vulnerabilities to be addressed in a new way. By including community organizations, one can look beyond vulnerabilities by considering their management as a service. In this way, community organizations can be part of the civil protection continuum and, above all, their needs and service offerings can be better understood. 

Here again, the consequences-based approach has proven its worth, enabling vulnerabilities in two different areas with different objectives to be quickly assessed. The ultimate aim is to make society more resilient, and even to make the land more resilient.

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