Econometric evaluation of large weather events due to climate change: floods in Atlantic Canada

Abstract: Climate change increases frequency of large weather events such as floods, storm surges, cyclones, hurricanes, high-speed winds, thunderstorms, snowstorms, blizzards, extreme temperatures, and others. All these events lead to a significant economic damage to property, infrastructure, and human health. Historically Atlantic Canada has been vulnerable to flooding. Therefore, the goal of this study is to establish a relationship between socio-economic, climatological as well as direct flood factors and economic loss from floods in Atlantic Canada. First, this study evaluates probability of floods in Atlantic Canada due to hydrological as well as climatological factors. Second, it tests the hypothesis of an increasing frequency of floods in the future due to climate change. Coupled with economic losses from floods defined earlier, it will give us a possibility to evaluate the expected damage from floods in Atlantic Canada due to climate change to justify investment into mitigation measures.

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