Access and equity implications of open data for flood risk analysis in Metro Vancouver

This paper explores the current landscape of open data in a large Canadian metropolitan area. To achieve this, the creation of a flood risk map for Metro Vancouver was undertaken to serve as a case study. As a region with a diverse geography and population, it serves as an ideal candidate for a flood risk assessment. Using the strong base of recent literature within the hazard risk subdiscipline, a comprehensive flood risk assessment was undertaken for the Metro Vancouver area within a GIS software. To quantify the level of risk within the study area, variables were collected from government open data portals to create hazard, exposure, and vulnerability indexes. These data were then transformed in GIS and statistical software to create mapped indexes to highlight areas most at risk of a disaster. This data-intensive process revealed the access and equity implications created by differences in data availability between different municipalities in a contiguous region.