The Living with Water, Adaptation Guide for Flood-Resilient Buildings came about organically. This unique tool in Quebec, developed by Architecture Without Borders Quebec (AWBQ), and supported by several partners, is intended for various levels of government, as well as individuals and construction contractors.
This guide was published in both French and in English at the beginning of March, just in time for the implementation of the new Quebec flood zone maps, which are accompanied by regulatory changes. The government cautions that these maps will be published gradually: Over the next few years, some flood zones will be represented by older-generation maps and others by newer-generation maps.
The guide, meanwhile, continues to evolve. “When we launched it on March 2nd, we mainly included fact sheets for residential buildings,” explained Élène Levasseur, Director of Research and Education at the AWBQ and lead author of the guide, to the Insurance Portal. “Since then, we’ve developed fact sheets with collaborators, as part of a mandate with the Ministry of Culture, specifically regarding old and heritage buildings. This has been added to the latest version, and another funding stream has allowed us to address large buildings.”
Better understanding for better prevention
Divided into three sections, the 148-page guide presents numerous adaptation measures to increase the resilience of homes and buildings to flooding.
The first part explains how floods occur, identifies the risks of water infiltration into buildings, and explains drainage, among other things.
The second section focuses on "all the measures related to water: gutters, backflow preventers, pumps, flood barriers—in short, everything that helps retain, redirect, contain, and block water," said Levasseur.
The third section of the guide groups together the elements that make up a building, such as walls, floors, electrical systems, plumbing, roofing, and foundations. The fact sheets suggest materials and ways to adapt existing structures to better prepare for water infiltration. “It encompasses all the measures that can be implemented, assuming that the water will eventually reach the building one way or another,” summarizes Élène Levasseur.
Whether you’re a novice or an expert, the guide offers different levels of information. “It’s a document that bridges the gap between all these people and helps establish a common language among the various stakeholders,” says Levasseur.
Fifteen years of reflection
According to Levasseur, reflection on adapting buildings to improve their resilience in Quebec truly began in the spring of 2011, in the aftermath of the floods that submerged Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. In total, some 3,000 homes were flooded in this municipality in the Montérégie region of Quebec. Including neighbouring municipalities, the number of people affected approached 4,000, a third of whom had to be evacuated.
The spring floods of 2017 and 2019 in Quebec then prompted a greater awareness among governments, she says.
In just a few years, “we saw floods we didn’t think we’d see again for another century,” she underlines. “Governments realized that their land and water management plans and policies only addressed water management, not the buildings exposed to it.”
From then on, the organization participated in its first symposium, bringing together the Ordre des architectes du Québec, the Société québécoise des infrastructures , and the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal. In 2020, it was commissioned to conduct a review of current knowledge on housing, including key measures for building adaptation. The first draft of the report Living with Water was published the following year.
Documenting and experimenting
From 2021 to 2023, thanks to a partnership with the ARIAction research group at the Université de Montréal, the AWBQ developed an initial set of 17 adaptation fact sheets, which garnered the interest of the ministère de l’Environnement et de la lutte aux changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs, which wanted Quebec to have an official document on the subject. The need for evidence-based data then became apparent. Financial assistance of $2.7 million from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) enabled the implementation of an 18-month project, mobilizing 160 people from universities, municipalities, government ministries, and research centres.
Various regulatory frameworks were examined: zoning, urban planning, architectural integration, and others. “We sought to identify all the factors that make adapting [buildings] difficult, but also those that, with a simple change, could facilitate and effectively guide this adaptation,” explains Élène Levasseur.
In parallel, laboratory tests to assess the resilience of certain materials when wet were conducted in partnership with the Chair in Multiscale Building Physics at the Université de Sherbrooke, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), the Eau Terre Environnement Research Centre from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) and Ecohome.
“This information will serve as evidence that insurers can use when the time comes,” Élène Levasseur told the Insurance Portal in 2025.
Insurers will find it useful.
While the guide is primarily designed “for citizens, contractors, architects, and municipal professionals,” property and casualty insurance specialists will ultimately find it of interest.
“Currently, this tool can be used by insurers because it allows them to question many [reconstruction] practices,” says Levasseur. “It demonstrates that we need to stop rebuilding exactly as it was and instead quickly identify the types of materials that might eventually be required.” Future versions of the guide could advise insurers on the value to assign to preventative adaptations, which could influence policyholders’ premiums.
“That’s the next phase of the project, which is currently in the planning stages,” she says, without specifying a timeline. The Living with Water, Adaptation Guide for Flood-Resilient Buildings, co-authored by Claire Delaby and Mirella Caccia Kostović, was also funded by the Fonds bleu , as part of the Stratégie québécoise de l’eau.
