Flood Vulnerability and Climate Change

The study uses geospatial and quantitative analysis in Windsor, Ontario, to demonstrate that combining flood hazard exposure with a neighbourhood deprivation index reveals 'hot spots' of risk that traditional physical assessments miss. It finds that marginalized and racialized populations, particularly Black households, are disproportionately exposed to pluvial (surface water) flooding, while no such significant disparity was found for fluvial (riverine) flooding. The authors argue that integrating socioeconomic vulnerability into risk management allows for more equitable allocation of resources and targeted social programs to reduce overall vulnerability.

• In the Windsor CMA, 22.6 per cent of residential properties are exposed to fluvial flood hazards and 16.6 per cent are exposed to pluvial flood hazards.
• The intersection of flood exposure and socioeconomic vulnerability reveals 'hot spots' of risk; fluvial risk intersects with vulnerability along the Detroit River, while pluvial risk is concentrated in dense downtown neighbourhoods.
• Correlation analysis indicates that Black households, Indigenous peoples, other visible minorities, and lone-parent households are disproportionately exposed to pluvial (surface water) flood risk.
• There are no statistically significant racial or social disparities in exposure to fluvial (riverine) flooding in the Windsor CMA, with Black households actually showing a lower risk of fluvial flooding.
• Traditional flood risk assessments that focus only on hazard exposure and physical vulnerability may misdirect resources away from areas with high socioeconomic vulnerability.

APA

Chakraborty, L., Thistlethwaite, J., & Henstra, D. (2021). Flood Vulnerability and Climate Change. Canadian Climate Institute. https://climateinstitute.ca/publications/flood-vulnerability-and-climate-change/

Chicago

Chakraborty, Liton, Jason Thistlethwaite, and Daniel Henstra. Flood Vulnerability and Climate Change. Canadian Climate Institute, 2021. https://climateinstitute.ca/publications/flood-vulnerability-and-climate-change/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Chakraborty |first1=Liton |last2=Thistlethwaite |first2=Jason |last3=Henstra |first3=Daniel |title=Flood Vulnerability and Climate Change |publisher=Canadian Climate Institute |date=13 August 2021 |url=https://climateinstitute.ca/publications/flood-vulnerability-and-climate-change/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{chakraborty2021flood, author = {Chakraborty, Liton and Thistlethwaite, Jason and Henstra, Daniel}, title = {{Flood Vulnerability and Climate Change}}, institution = {Canadian Climate Institute}, year = {2021}, month = aug, url = {https://climateinstitute.ca/publications/flood-vulnerability-and-climate-change/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }