Centennial Overview: Form Science to Policy: Past, Present and Future of Regulatory Flood Maps in the US, Canada (Quebec) and France
Abstract
In recent years, the United States (US), Canada (Quebec), and France have all experienced severe floods that have both challenged and fortified their approach to manage this hazard. All three share a similar overall approach to managing flood risk: the use of regulatory maps to reduce exposure and vulnerability to flood hazard. In their flood-related policies there is a clear focus on the use of non-structural measures linked to mitigation such as land use planning, or building codes (as well as structural measures to reduce the frequency of flooding). It is clear that regulatory flood maps are a key element for flood risk management, because they have tremendous implications in creating different scenarios of exposure and vulnerability facing governing agencies in the future. However, due to their geographic, demographic, governance, and cultural differences, the implementation of the mapping approach to reduce risk is very different in these countries.
Our analysis of how regulatory flood maps have evolved over time in these three countries demonstrates that although the "science" behind these maps (flood models, etc.) is relatively similar, the way they set up the boundaries of the regulatory flood prone area is very different. In France the area behind levees is considered part of the regulatory flood prone area while in the US it is not. Quebec in general follows the French approach with a few exceptions. The US doesn't account for climate change in the regulatory maps. Since 2010 France takes into account climate change but only in coastal zones. In Quebec there are no clear guidelines for how to account for climatic change in defining future flood prone area. While France and Quebec explicitly forbid building in hazardous areas defined by the regulatory maps, the US only discourages it. In the US regulatory maps are flood insurance rate maps while in France and in Canada these maps are not directly linked to an insurance system.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMNH21A..08S
- Keywords:
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- 1821 Floods;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1880 Water management;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 4313 Extreme events;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4328 Risk;
- NATURAL HAZARDS