As southern Pakistan struggles with deadly floods due to global warming, Canadians could also be affected by climate change in the coming years, experts say.
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Major floods are a part of Canada’s past and future and they are also the costliest and most common natural disasters in the country, according to Public Safety Canada, CTV News reported Saturday.
“There are urban areas across the country that are dealing with flooding,” Carleton University professor Jennifer Drake told CTVNews on Friday. But the causes of flooding can vary by climate and region.”
The deltas
John Richardson, who teaches in the Department of Forest Conservation Science at the University of British Columbia, says Canada has many flood-prone deltas.
“A lot of places in Canada where we see big floods are largely in these delta-like areas,” Richardson said. What is important is to think that river deltas do not just go into the ocean. River deltas also go into other rivers, lakes and wetlands.”
The flood plains
Flat, shallow areas adjacent to rivers, called floodplains, are particularly prone to flooding, during storms or spring ice melt.
“Floodplains have formed over thousands of years from waterways carrying sediment from erosion,” said expert Richardson, adding that these places have always been attractive places to settle. , because the soil of the floodplains is good for agriculture.
Communities located in floodplains would be threatened by water level changes caused by storms and spring ice melt.
Many Torontonians were devastated by historic flooding during Hurricane Hazel in October 1954, a tragedy that claimed 80 lives.
The rivers flowing north
According to Jennifer Drake, spring brings additional risks. Spring thaw floods and ice jams, the piles of ice cubes in a watercourse, can be dangerous.
Although ice jams can occur on any river that freezes over during the winter, rivers flowing north are particularly prone.
coastal storms
“The rise in water level that occurs during a hurricane or large storm creates flooding or exacerbates flooding in coastal cities,” Drake said.
Richardson expects to see storm records broken with increasing regularity across the country in the coming years.
“We all know that with climate change we are predicting stronger storms,” he said. Even if you look at hurricane intensities, they have been increasing in average intensity for most of the last 40 years.”