FOCUS AREA:
CLIMATE EQUITY & RISK ANALYSIS
Flooding and other climate-related risks are not distributed equally among all Canadians. Rather, people experience disasters in different ways because of systemic inequalities, structural barriers, and the intersection of demographic characteristics. To reduce underlying vulnerabilities and create resilient communities, we must first identify what causes some people to be at greater risk than others, and where the most disproportionately at-risk are located. From there, communities can invest in areas where risk is the greatest, and design targeted programs, policies, and communications that meet people where they are at.
P4A has advanced innovations in equity-informed risk mapping, inclusive risk communications, and decision-making tools through the following projects:
- Inclusive Resilience: Driving Risk Awareness to Action and Building Resiliency for Vulnerable Canadians in High-Risk Areas
- Data for Flood Resilience: Building Evidence for Equity-Informed Investment, Planning, and Foresight
- Just Green Cities: Integrating the SDGs into Municipal Infrastructure Decision Making
Introduction to Climate Equity
Why apply an equity lens to climate risk assessments?
Social vulnerability refers to the 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 such as household income, racial disparity, gender inequity, housing quality and insecurity, access to essential services, language barriers, and pre-existing health conditions—among others.
Reducing disaster and climate risks requires integrated and intersectional approaches that combine traditional techniques, like hazard exposure mapping, with social vulnerability considerations. Doing so can lead to targeted interventions, improved accessibility, and more resilient outcomes. Applying a climate equity lens means considering the structural barriers that create disparity within and between communities, and actively empowering those most affected by climate disasters to fulsomely engage in risk reduction and resiliency.
This presentation, delivered by P4A's Administration and Research Coordinator, Felicia Watterodt, to the Adaptive and Resilient Communities Cohort, in partnership with Tamarack Institute and Climate Caucus, provides an overview of how social vulnerability manifests within the disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation spaces, necessitating the use of an equity-informed approach.
Data for Flood Resilience: Building Evidence for Equity-Informed Investment, Planning, and Foresight
Explore resources including an engagement toolkit, a literature review and policy primer on the state of disaster disparity in Canada, and decision-support tools, including a methodological guide for integrating a social vulnerability index within hazard mapping and risk assessments.
Data for Flood Resilience
In 2022, Co-operators renewed their multi-year funding commitment to P4A to catalyze community-level flood resilience and engaged P4A to explore where and how investments in resilience (which can include disaster risk reduction and adaptation) could make the most impact.
Building on P4A's foundational research on assessing and mapping socio-economic vulnerability to climate hazards in Canada, P4A's Climate Equity and Risk Analysis team focused on what might help communities apply an evidence-based equity lens to resilience efforts. The goal was to understand how and where to prioritize programming and resources to reduce the impact of floods and other hazard events.
The following resources aim to support equity-informed decision-making, centering the needs of those most disproportionately impacted by climate hazards within investment, planning, and decision-making.
Disaster and Disparity
Empowering community members to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters is essential for building long-term resilience. Doing so begins with an understanding that an individual’s vulnerability to climate hazards is shaped by the various power dynamics, systemic barriers, and conditions of inequality that influence how people move through the world, their ability to access important information and resources, and their agency to participate within decision-making spaces. This literature review and primer reinforces the need to apply an equity lens to disaster vulnerability. The reports identifies the key determinants of social vulnerability prevalent within Canadian society and provides clear examples of how these conditions can undermine a person’s ability to cope with climate disasters, like floods.
Coming soon! Stay tuned for the Fall 2025 release of our new report
Decision Support Tools for Equity-Informed Risk Assessments
Download the resource guides:
Let's Talk: Engagement Toolkit
As an output of the Data for Flood Resilience project, P4A produced an engagement toolkit to support the advancement of community-level flood resilience and equity-informed investment, planning, and foresight. These materials can be used to catalyze internal risk-informed discussions and support decision-making within organizations and within local governing bodies, to engage external stakeholders and community members in adaptation planning processes, and to use in classrooms.
Because needs and outcomes will vary among users, this engagement toolkit is meant to flexible and adaptive. Users have the ability to mix and match when choosing which engagement materials and exercises best suit their desired outcomes, but all materials are complementary and can also be used to supplement risk analysis and mapping activities.
The engagement materials are broken down into two use cases:
- Resources to use when deciding how to narrow down who to prioritize and what to map for risk reduction
- Resources to use when engaging in deeper conversation and learning via an interactive group activity
We recommend beginning with the Engagement Toolkit Guide to explore the materials available and determine which meet your needs.
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Inclusive Resilience - Résilience Inclusive
Driving Risk Awareness to Action and Building Resiliency for Vulnerable Canadians in High-Risk Areas
Inclusive Resilience: A Socio-Economic Vulnerability Index
Flood risk is partly due to social vulnerability. Understanding and mapping the drivers of this vulnerability is critical for developing inclusive policies that reduce risk and strengthen resilience for all Canadians. P4A has developed a Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) that combines Canadian Census variables with flood exposure data to produce web-based GIS maps. This integrated approach to risk assessments and mapping can be utilized to support equity goals and inform evidence-based decision-making. This SoVI can help identify specific geographic areas within communities that will most likely need support before, during, and after hazardous events which are becoming more common and intense with climate change.
P4A began this research as part of the multi-year Inclusive Resilience: Driving Risk Awareness to Action and Building Resiliency for Vulnerable Canadians in High-Risk Areas project with the Canadian Red Cross and funded by Public Safety Canada. The Canadian Red Cross engaged P4A to research socio-economic vulnerability to better understand who may be most impacted by natural hazards like floods, wildfires, and earthquakes.
Resilience Inclusive- Indice de vulnerabilite socioeconomique
Le risque d’inondation est en partie attribuable à la vulnérabilité sociale. Comprendre et cartographier les facteurs de cette vulnérabilité est essentiel à l’élaboration de politiques inclusives qui réduisent les risques et renforcent la résilience de tous les Canadiens. P4A a mis au point un Indice de vulnérabilité sociale (IVS) qui combine les variables du recensement canadien avec des données sur l’exposition aux inondations afin de produire des cartes SIG accessibles en ligne. Cette approche intégrée d’évaluation et de cartographie des risques peut servir à appuyer les objectifs d’équité et à éclairer la prise de décisions fondée sur des données probantes. Cet IVS peut aider à identifier les zones géographiques spécifiques au sein des collectivités qui auront le plus probablement besoin de soutien avant, pendant et après des événements dangereux, lesquels deviennent plus fréquents et plus intenses avec les changements climatiques.
P4A a entrepris cette recherche dans le cadre du projet pluriannuel « Résilience inclusive : Sensibiliser aux risques et renforcer la résilience des Canadiens vulnérables dans les zones à haut risque », mené en collaboration avec la Croix-Rouge canadienne et financé par Sécurité publique Canada. La Croix-Rouge canadienne a mandaté P4A pour étudier la vulnérabilité socioéconomique afin de mieux comprendre qui pourrait être le plus touché par les aléas naturels comme les inondations, les feux de forêt et les tremblements de terre.
Just Green Cities - Villes Vertes Justes
Integrating the SDGs into Municipal Infrastructure Decision Making
This project aligns with Canada’s 2030 Agenda National Strategy, a plan for implementing Canada’s commitment as a signatory to the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). P4A partnered with Windfall Ecology Centre and Possibilian Ventures to hold four stakeholder workshops and investigate infrastructure issues and their relevance to SDGs. The resulting cases focus on fleet electrification, stormwater management, and net-zero buildings. Each case incorporates what we call an Equity2 Framework – the intersection of four key drivers of change: financial (green/environmental, social, and governance) equity, social equity, climate change, and municipal infrastructure.
This research provides a compelling snapshot of the complexities involved in equity-based responses to three areas of municipal infrastructure renewal at a critical moment in Canada’s efforts to implement the SDGs and address the climate emergency. What is abundantly clear is that equity issues need to be centred and prioritized in the planning and decision-making process, rather than considered downstream when it’s too late.
Integrer les ODD dans les processus decisionnel relatif aux infrastructures municipales
Ce projet s’inscrit dans le cadre de la Stratégie nationale du Programme de développement durable à l’horizon 2030 du Canada, un plan visant à concrétiser l’engagement du pays en tant que signataire des Objectifs de développement durable (ODD) des Nations Unies de 2015. P4A s’est associée au Windfall Ecology Center et à Possibilian Ventures pour organiser quatre ateliers avec les parties prenantes et examiner les enjeux liés aux infrastructures et leur pertinence au regard des ODD. Les études de cas qui en résultent portent sur l’électrification des flottes de véhicules, la gestion des eaux pluviales et les bâtiments à consommation énergétique nette zéro. Chaque étude intègre ce que nous appelons un Cadre d’équité2 – l’intersection de quatre principaux facteurs de changement : l’équité financière (verte/environnementale, sociale et de gouvernance), l’équité sociale, les changements climatiques et les infrastructures municipales.
Cette recherche offre un aperçu éloquent de la complexité des réponses fondées sur l’équité à trois domaines du renouvellement des infrastructures municipales, à un moment crucial des efforts déployés par le Canada pour mettre en œuvre les ODD et lutter contre l’urgence climatique. Il ressort clairement que les enjeux d’équité doivent être intégrés et priorisés dans le processus de planification et de prise de décision, plutôt que d’être considérés a posteriori, lorsqu’il est trop tard.
