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Interaction between land-use change, flooding and human health in Metro Vancouver, Canada

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Abstract

Many regions of the world are experiencing an increase in frequency and intensity of floods. There has been increasing understanding among emergency preparedness and natural disaster planners that rapid urbanization is enhancing the risk from river flooding in urban areas. Many regions of Canada have been exposed to particularly severe floods over the course of the last few years, much of this due to land-use change. This study aims at understanding the risk of flooding for the City of Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which is located in the Fraser River Delta. The paper presents a fast, efficient and reliable method that can be used to produce vegetation maps from advanced very high resolution radiometer images and SPOT vegetation maps. A 10-day maximum normalized difference vegetation index maps were produced to assess the dynamics of the urbanization process in Vancouver. Remotely sensed data show a significant decrease in vegetation cover in the Metro Vancouver City between 1984 and 2012. The proposed method can be used as an effective tool for raising early land-use change awareness and assist with flood risk management. Flood risk management has a substantial impact on human health and well-being in urban areas, and this flood risk information will be used to assess the impact of flooding and explore the complex relationship between land-use change, urbanization, flooding and impact on urban dwellers.

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Notes

  1. http://www.who.int/gho/urban_health/situation_trends/urban_population_growth_text/en/.

  2. http://coastalcitiesatrisk.org/wordpress/.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support made available by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) together with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B9, Canada

    Amin M. Owrangi & Slobodan P. Simonovic

  2. Department of Pathology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Robert Lannigan

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  1. Amin M. Owrangi
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  2. Robert Lannigan
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  3. Slobodan P. Simonovic
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Correspondence to Amin M. Owrangi.

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Owrangi, A.M., Lannigan, R. & Simonovic, S.P. Interaction between land-use change, flooding and human health in Metro Vancouver, Canada. Nat Hazards 72, 1219–1230 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1064-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1064-0

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