Inclusive Resilience: Driving Risk Awareness to Action and Building Resiliency for Vulnerable Canadians in High-Risk Areas
About the Inclusive Resilience project
The Canadian Red Cross engaged Partners for Action (P4A) to do research on the following topics for the Inclusive Resilience: Driving Risk Awareness to Action and Building Resiliency for Vulnerable Canadians in High-Risk Areas project, made possible with funding from Public Safety Canada:
- Inclusive risk communications to help develop materials that help at-risk Canadians reduce their exposure to emergencies and take action to prepare.
- Mapping flood risk using a social vulnerability index (SoVI) to identify who may be most impacted by natural hazards like floods, and therefore who may need support before, during, and after such events—which are becoming more common and intense with climate change.
Why is inclusive resilience important for disaster risk reduction?
Inclusive resilience means that all community members have equitable access to the resources and support they need to prepare for, cope with, and recover from adverse shocks, such as disasters. This means that those who are disproportionately impacted by climate change and natural hazards are meaningfully included in risk reduction and emergency planning, policy, and actions.
Flood risks are not distributed equally among all Canadians. Rather, various systemic inequalities, structural barriers, and demographic factors can intersect to influence how an individual or group experiences a disaster event. Social vulnerability refers to conditions that make it challenging for people to prepare for, cope with, and recover from a hazard during a specific timeframe. This can include factors like household income, colonialism, racial disparity, gender inequity, housing quality and insecurity, access to essential services, language barriers, and pre-existing health conditions—among others.
To reduce these underlying vulnerabilities and create more equitable, resilient communities, we must first identify:
- what causes certain individuals to be more flood-disadvantaged than others, and
- where the most disproportionately at-risk are located within a community.
P4A's research on equity-informed mapping
Applying cutting-edge social vulnerability index (SoVI) methodology, P4A’s Climate Equity and Risk Analysis team combined Canadian census data with flood exposure analyses to identify priority areas within a community where exposure and vulnerability intersect. A spatial analysis of social vulnerability was completed for six Canadian communities:
- Richmond, BC
- Thompson, MB
- Ottawa-Renfrew County, ON
- Ottawa-Gatineau, ON
- Bay St. George, NL
- Moose Factory, ON
Learn more!
Read our newest report to learn more about our research methodology. To learn more about why this work is important for Canadians, check out this Waterloo News spotlight.
Waterloo News
