McMaster researcher Paulin Coulibaly has secured a second round of federal and industry funding to continue a McMaster-based national research network focused on strengthening flood forecasting across Canada.
The $1.4 million in federal funding for FloodNet2 builds on a $5 million investment in 2014 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada that Coulibaly used to launch the NSERC Canadian FloodNet.
In addition to the new funding, Floodnet is receiving $844,430 from industry partners and $654,000 of in-kind support from partners to test and refine its tools and technologies.
FloodNet1
In 2014, Coulibaly — a professor with the Department of Civil Engineering and the School of Earth, Environment and Society — assembled a team of leading researchers, scientists and hydrologists from provincial flood forecasting centres, hydropower companies, federal and provincial agencies and academia.
At their first in-person meeting, when Coulibaly pitched the idea of FloodNet, everyone was all in. “That marked the first time we’d ever been together in the same place. We recognized right away that we had a lot to discuss, share and learn from each other.”
Coulibaly launched FloodNet to fast-track the modernization and standardization of hydrologic modelling, flood forecasting, monitoring and mitigation systems across the country.
“Each province, municipality and hydro-power company were using individual models and procedures and none were best-in-class,” he says Coulibaly.
In the U.S., all 50 states have long since used one system. Doing the same in Canada is an urgent priority, he says.
“Climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity and unpredictability of devastating floods across our country. We need to be much better prepared.”
Flooding caused by heavy rainfall, coastal storm surges and other weather events is Canada’s most prevalent natural disaster, more common that tornadoes, earthquakes and wildfires.
To help Canada better face the reality of increasingly severe and devastating floods,the network Coulibaly assembled and leads has developed a suite of tools and technologies.
Urban flash floods
The first phase of FloodNet wrapped up in 2020. Now, with federal and industry funding secured for FloodNet2, the network of industry, government and academic experts will launch 10 projects over the next four years, with a focus on urban flash floods.
The risk of flash flooding in Canadian cities is growing as more frequent and intense rainstorms overwhelm storm sewers and drainage systems. Climate models project that extreme rainfall events that used to happen once every 20 years in Canada could occur every five years by the end of the century.
That’s a serious problem given that 80 per cent of Canadian cities are built in whole or in part on floodplains. On July 16, 2024 — a decade after the FloodNet network held their inaugural meeting — a month’s worth of rain fell during three hours in Toronto, resulting in massive flooding and nearly $1 billion in insurable losses.
Toronto Pearson Airport reported 97.8 mm of rain in that one morning. In the three decades before that, from 1991 to 2020, rainfall for the entire month of July in Toronto averaged 74 mm.
Among the 10 research projects that make up FloodNet2 are the creation of a community of practice to test new tools and models, modernization of the methods used to estimate probable maximum precipitation statistics needed for high-hazard structures like dams and nuclear power points, and the development of the next generation of flash flooding forecasting and early warning systems using artificial intelligence, satellite information and sensor technology.
A new generation of hydrologists
When FloodNet2 wraps up in 2030, Coulibaly will have dedicated a decade of his career to leading the research network and working on many of its projects.
FloodNet1 was a heavy lift and he expects more of the same this time around.
“Training the future generation of Canadian hydrologists to be better equipped to face the reality of floods is the key motivation of this effort,” he says.
“Most of the students trained in my lab during the first phase of FloodNet have been hired by hydropower companies, provincial flood forecasting centres and Environment Canada.”