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The Social Context of Flood Risk in Alberta: Perspectives from Municipal Planners, Insurance Agents, the General Public and Media Sources
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- Author(s) / Creator(s)
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This project report contains research conducted by senior undergraduate students in a
university capstone course, from January to April, 2021. The course invites students to
conduct original research as an integrative experience for a degree in the Faculty of
Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta. All student authors were
completing their degrees in Environment and Conservation Sciences, with majors in Human
Dimensions, Environmental Economics and Policy, or Environmental Studies. At the
beginning of each chapter, the names of student authors are listed. The final report was
modified by the editors for clarity and consistency.
This research is focused on the social context of flood risk in Alberta, with an
emphasis on understanding the evolving challenges of urban residential flooding. This interest
arose from interactions with faculty members at the University of Alberta, representatives
from TD Insurance and researchers at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, who were
focused on understanding why homeowners in urban areas are not implementing measures on
their properties to reduce the risk and impacts from stormwater flood events. Challenges
homeowners face include the increasing frequency of surface flooding and how the media
reports on these events over time. We also observe divergent perspectives on how to mitigate
flood risk and who is responsible for these actions. These differences are noted in the
information gathered from municipal planners and insurance brokers. The social context of
flood risk also includes public perspectives of flooding and how these perspectives might be
impacted by recent experiences with flooding and political ideology. Through a better
understanding of these issues, we hope that key decision makers, such as municipal planners
and insurance brokers, as well as homeowners, can better understand this social context and
design programs or undertake activities to assist with flood risk reduction.
In chapter one, the authors review 37 media articles on flooding in Alberta. Analysis
indicates that topics in the media were associated with three broad factors: lack of awareness,
socioeconomic concerns and concern for ongoing flooding. The two most frequently proposed
solutions to flood risk were homeowners improving their homes to mitigate against flood
risks or damages, and major infrastructural improvements or developments to withstand flood
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damages. Results showed that there were more articles that placed the onus on governments to
do more in both fixing flooding problems and in accepting responsibility for allowing
flooding to occur in the first place. Researchers also found that climate change is slowly
starting to become part of the discussion surrounding urban flooding.
With a focus on municipal planners (i.e., Edmonton, Calgary and St. Albert), chapter 2
investigates how planners understand flood risk, and their perceptions of collaboration and
community engagement in flood risk management decision-making processes. Based on 12
in-depth interviews, this research revealed that there is considerable contention around the
roles and responsibilities of homeowners, municipalities, and the provincial government. For
example, there are different perspectives on who should be responsible for overland flooding
within municipalities, with evolving expectations for governments and homeowners.
Emerging perspectives on these roles and responsibilities is precipitated by large disaster
events such as the 2013 fluvial floods in southern Alberta. The chapter also identifies
emerging approaches to flood mitigation in municipalities, with distinct approaches to new
versus old neighbourhoods, and ongoing challenges of flood mitigation as it relates to
municipal versus private land.
Chapter 3 involves in-depth interviews with 15 insurance brokers who work for TD
Insurance. These individuals were identified for the students through prior contacts between
university faculty members and the insurance company. Key questions in this study include
the following: What do insurance adjusters see as the biggest barriers for customers to invest
in flood prevention measures for their homes? With these barriers in mind, what can
insurance companies and local governments do to encourage homeowners to invest in flood
prevention measures? The largest barrier identified was homeowners not being able to
understand their insurance policy, and the solutions to these problems centred on educational
programming that is targeted at homeowners.
In chapter 4, students shifted their focus to the perspectives of households. By
comparing survey data from 2007 and 2021, the authors identified shifting patterns of public
perception. Regarding perceptions of future flood risks, 10% of homeowners in 2021 rated the
chance of a stormwater flood in the next 10 years as very or somewhat likely. This statistic
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indicates a drop of 38% in the perception of flood risk when compared to the 2007. his
statistic compares to 38% in 2007, indicating a drop in the perception of flood risk. Other key
differences in perception are compared in this study. But authors caution that while such
differences may be a result of changing perceptions in the general population, they may also
result from different survey research methods used in the 2007 and 2021 studies.
Looking more deeply at public perceptions, Chapter 5 introduces the concept of moral
framing and nudges as a way to understand flood risk through a political lens. The authors
hypothesized that conservatives are more likely to undertake flood mitigation efforts when
influenced by authority, loyalty, and sanctity framing. Liberals were expected to be more
influenced by moral frames such as care, fairness and reciprocity. Although the theory of
moral framing would suggest these outcomes to be observed in the dataset, results from this
study show that morally framed statements did not produce statistically significant differences
between liberal and conservative-oriented respondents. These results may challenge some of
the thinking behind moral framing theory, but may also indicate some weaknesses in the
quality of survey data.
Finally, in chapter 6, students utilize pre-existing national survey data to examine
differences in perceived versus objective flood risk and its impact on mitigation measures.
Objective risk was measured using a GIS method of flood risk analysis for the Edmonton
region. Using multivariate analysis, results indicate that objective risk has no impact on
perceived risk of basement flooding. This conclusion was counter to that found in Chapter 4
with the more recent Edmonton homeowner survey. However, the students in this present
chapter note that several socio-demographic variables are statistically significant in predicting
perceived risk of basement flooding. These results (and those in Chapter 4) suggest a complex
interaction between objective and perceived risks -
- Date created
- 2021-01-01
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Type of Item
- Report