To help protect our communities and ensure they are resilient in the face of more frequent and intense flooding events, CSA Group, with the support of the Standards Council of Canada, has delivered a new National Standard of Canada (NSC) designed to help reduce the impact of those events on new communities.

CSA/W204: Flood Resilient Design of New Residential Communities, is aimed at making communities more resilient to flooding, even before the shovel hits the ground in new subdivisions. This NSC gathers together requirements and recommendations for designing and building flood resilient communities and provides guidance on how to manage with increased urban development and aging infrastructure. The standard captures a holistic view of planning and development, from the watershed level to the operation and maintenance of stormwater infrastructure, and clearly lays out what needs to be done from the earliest stages to ensure that communities can recover quickly from severe flooding events.

 “Fueled by climate change, flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster impacting Canada. Recognizing that flood risk is on the rise across Canada, the adoption of this new standard by developers, homebuilders and municipalities should be a national priority.”

-- Natalia Moudrak, Director, Climate Resilience, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, University of Waterloo

“This important new standard for greenfield residential development was developed by water management experts. Its guidance should assist provinces, municipalities and watershed agencies, such as Ontario’s Conservation Authorities, to avoid negative economic, social and environmental impacts of flooding from overflowing rivers and excessive overland runoff. I would encourage jurisdictions responsible for flood management to adopt this standard (at a minimum) and incorporate it as part of an overall climate change strategy.”

-- Barbara Veale, Director, Planning and Watershed Manager, Conservation Halton, Ontario

Development of the standard was funded under SCC’s Standards to Support Resilience in Infrastructure Program (2016-2021), a five-year $11.7M initiative advancing standardization strategies and solutions to help Canadian businesses and communities adapt to climate change.  The standard draws best practices from Preventing Disaster Before It Strikes, a 2017 research report produced by the Intact Centre for SCC.

To purchase this new National Standard of Canada, please visit the CSA Store.