Resilient-C
The Resilient Coasts Canada Platform
School of Community and Regional Planning @ The University of British Columbia
Answering the question:
”Which other Canadian communities are most similar to my own and what resilience-building actions have they taken to address coastal hazard risks?”
What is Resilient-C?
Resilient-C is a free online tool created to help Canadian coastal communities build hazards resilience. Resilient-C helps interested communities to discover other communities across the country that share similar hazard vulnerabilities, similar community profiles, or similar approaches to resilience-building so that they can connect and learn from one another.
The platform is funded through the Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction, and Response Network (MEOPAR) and is hosted by the University of British Columbia.
Primary Investigator: Dr. Stephanie Chang
Hazards Tracked by Resilient-C
Flooding
Coastal and riverine flooding represents the most common hazard affecting Canadian communities and households and has been responsible for many of Canada’s most expensive disasters.
Earthquakes
Earthquakes have the potential to impact millions of Canadians in coastal cities on both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through ground shaking and displacement
Tsunamis
Local, regional, and large tele-tsunamis have the potential to devastate large swaths of our coastlines on both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, affecting tens of thousands.
Contaminant Spills
Unplanned discharges of chemicals, oil, fuels, or sewage along the coast or upriver can affect communities across all of Canada’s coasts, affecting humans, wildlife, and the environment.
Resilient-C Hazard Vulnerability Similarity Indicators Matrix
Hazard Vulnerability Similarity Indicators
Resilient-C uses a set of 25 vulnerability indicators to determine which communities are most similar to a given target community among the over 180 in its database. These indicators are split into five capitals addressing economic, social, built environment, natural environment, and institutional factors. Data for these indicators is pulled from Canadian Census profiles, business location data, provincial statistics, and other authoritative sources.
All indicator data is processed using a custom ArcGIS Pro project I developed that automates data ingestion, pre-processing, and analyses. In most cases the GIS model processes this data for all 5,162 census sub-divisions to ease the addition of future communities. Custom Model Builder toolkits and Python scripts ensure data is always processed consistently across the country.
Project Involvement
I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Resilient Coasts Canada project from September 2017 through June 2022. At the time I joined the project there were 50 communities along the Salish Sea, and since then we have expanded to over 180 communities in British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland.
During this time I helped to re-develop the 25 hazard vulnerability indicators, moved to national datasets where possible, and shifted to include more geospatial data. My specific responsibilities included:
Front-end website development using Python, HTML5, and Javascript;
GIS hazard vulnerability modelling using ArcGIS Pro, with custom toolkits and Python scripts; and
Development of national hazard exposure GIS model to incorporate risk from earthquakes, tsunamis, coastal and riverine flooding, and marine contaminant spills.
Related Webinars:
What are Your Peer Communities Doing to Address Coastal Hazards?
August 5, 2020
Host: Canadian Coastal Resilience Forum (CCRF)
David Righter and I introduce the latest updates to Resilient-C and demonstrate how it can quickly determine those communities that share similar conditions and hazards to your own. The platform recently expanded to include over 150 communities in British Columbia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
Version 3.4 Updates to the Resilient-C Platform
February 7, 2022
Host: MEOPAR Annual Science Meeting
I provide a short guide to the Resilient-C platform, show how to use the site to learn more about peer communities, describe some of the updates we’ve made in the past year, and briefly addresses some of our recent research findings.