Coquitlam is one of three Canadian municipalities to pilot a new piece of technology that will help to figure out where its flooding risks are - now and in the future.
On Thursday, at a press conference at Coquitlam city hall, the Insurance Bureau of Canada also named Fredericton, N.B. and Hamilton, Ont. as the cities that will launch the Municipal Risk Assessment Tool (MRAT).
The multi-million dollar machine is designed to create maps to show where the city's vulnerabilities are for sewer and stormwater drains in the event of a major storm. It will also assess data for potential claims this year as well as in 2020 and 2050.
Funded by Natural Resources Canada's Innovative Risk Management Tools Program, MRAT's aim is prevent sewer backups and to keep basements dry. The Insurance Bureau reports water damage makes up more than half of all insurance claims. This year alone, insured losses from natural disasters in Canada, including in Alberta and Toronto, totalled about $3 billion.
