A University of Waterloo research centre
Generously supported by
About the Intact Centre
The Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation (Intact Centre) is an applied research centre with a national focus within the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo. The Intact Centre works with homeowners, communities, governments and businesses to identify, and reduce, the impacts of extreme weather and climate change.
To this end, the centre is an incubator of new adaptation ideas, conducting research, knowledge mobilization and promoting initiatives aimed at de-risking the negative impacts of a changing climate and extreme weather, such as flooding.
The establishment of the Intact Centre was made possible through the leadership, vision, and generosity of Intact Financial Corporation, a long-time partner and donor to the University of Waterloo particularly supporting climate adaptation. In November 2015, Intact announced a gift directed in support of the centre’s mission and goals.
Recent Outputs
Follow us on Twitter @ICCA Canada for the most recent updates on climate adaptation and flooding.
Irreversible Extreme Heat: Protecting Canadians and Communities from a Lethal Future (April 2022): by Joanna Eyquem and Dr. Blair Feltmate. This guide presents a series of practical actions that Canadians can undertake to reduce extreme heat risks. They fall into three categories: Changing behaviour (non-structural), working with nature (green infrastructure), and improving buildings and public infrastructure (grey infrastructure).
Treading Water: Impact of Catastrophic Flooding on Canada’s Housing Market (February 2022): by Kathryn Bakos, Dr. Blair Feltmate, Chris Chopik, and Cheryl Evans. This study examined whether catastrophic flooding affects Canadian residential real estate (house sold price, days on market, number of listings) and mortgage markets (arrears and deferrals). The primary audience to which findings of this report bear direct relevance includes homeowners, mortgage providers, municipalities and financial regulators.
Wildfire-Resilience Best-Practice Checklist for Home Construction, Renovation and Landscaping in Wildland Urban Interface Areas of Canada: The goal of the checklist is to encourage the use of wildfire resilience best practices in new home construction, renovations and landscaping to reduce the risk of wildfire property damage in wildland urban interface areas of Canada. This checklist was compiled by FireSmart Canada™, the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, University of Alberta and the Intact Centre.
Rising Seas and Shifting Sands: Combining Natural and Grey Infrastructure to Protect Canada’s Eastern and Western Coastal Communities (December 2021): by Joanna Eyquem. This report outlines the range of practical measures that can be used to protect coastal communities on Canada’s East and West coasts from flooding and erosion. Coastal protection measures include (1) Grey Infrastructure (hard, engineered coastal protection measures); and (2) Nature-Based Solutions (measures that depend on, or mimic, natural systems to manage flood and erosion risk).
Three Steps to Cost-Effective Home Flood Protection (March 2021): Intense rainfall events combined with aging municipal infrastructure, increased urbanization and a lack of flood protection measures at the household level have resulted in losses in billions of dollars for Canada’s insurance companies, governments, homeowners, landlords and tenants over the past decade. The Intact Centre has developed a variety of resources to help Canadians take action to reduce their home flood risk.
Three Steps to Cost-Effective Home Wildfire Protection (October, 2020): FireSmart Canada leads the development of resources and programs designed to empower the public and increase community resilience to wildfire across Canada. The Intact Centre has collaborated with FireSmart Canada to create a summary of the top actions residents can take to reduce home wildfire risk.
Offer your Support
Contact Taylor Legere, Manager, for ways to get involved with the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at Intact.Centre@uwaterloo.ca