Flood Risk and Vulnerability Analysis Project - Atlantic Climate ...

2. Task B – Updated Flood Events Inventory
The most common type of disaster occurring in Canada is flooding (Tudor, 1997). Therefore, an
understanding of the history of flooding in the province is a critical piece of the flood forecasting
/ risk assessment puzzle, and a critical component of the Project. The starting point of this
Project component was the inventory of flood event information that accompanied the WRMD
report “A Preliminary Study of Flooding in Newfoundland and Labrador (1998-2008)”. The
original inventory contained 179 records and 70 storm events.
The Flood Events Inventory was updated, as a component of the current Project, for the period
1950-present. This update was based on a review of existing information contained in the
current Flood Events Inventory and the collection and compilation of new data necessary for
updating the Flood Events Inventory for the required period. The updated inventory now
contains 650 flood events and 269 storm events over the period 1950 to 2011.
In the context of this report the following terms are used relative to the data contained flood
events inventory:
A “flood event” represents the affects of a storm event on a single community or damage
centre and is equal to a single record in the inventory.
A “storm event” is the event that initiates a flood event. As single storm event is, in many
cases, associated with multiple flood events.
Please note for Task B the names used for communities and areas are a combination of those
that were in place when the FRM studies were done in the 1980s and 1990s and those reflected
by the new LGP numbers due to a need to use data from both old FRM studies and the LGP
list.
2.1 Data Sources
In preparing the updated Flood Events Inventory, AMEC conducted a thorough review of the
following existing information and data sources:
The existing Flood Events Inventory
Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Environment and Conservation Flood
Studies website 4
A collection of previous completed flooding studies.
Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland
4 available at http://www.env.gov.nl.ca/env/waterres/flooding/frm.html
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