Barriers to Insurance as a Flood Risk Management Tool: Evidence from a Survey of Property Owners

Jason Thistlethwaite; Daniel Henstra; Craig Brown; Daniel Scott

doi:10.1007/s13753-020-00272-z

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Article Navigation > International Journal of Disaster Risk Science > 2020 > 11(3): 263-273

Jason Thistlethwaite, Daniel Henstra, Craig Brown, Daniel Scott. Barriers to Insurance as a Flood Risk Management Tool: Evidence from a Survey of Property Owners[J]. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2020, 11(3): 263-273. doi: 10.1007/s13753-020-00272-z

Citation:

Jason Thistlethwaite, Daniel Henstra, Craig Brown, Daniel Scott. Barriers to Insurance as a Flood Risk Management Tool: Evidence from a Survey of Property Owners[J]. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2020, 11(3): 263-273. doi: 10.1007/s13753-020-00272-z

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Barriers to Insurance as a Flood Risk Management Tool: Evidence from a Survey of Property Owners

doi: 10.1007/s13753-020-00272-z

1 School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada;
2 Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada;
3 Climate Change and Health Adaptation Planning, Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4C2, Canada;
4 Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada

Funds:

This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under Grant 430-2015-00521. The authors thank Truzaar Dordi for his research assistance, as well as Shawna Peddle for her diligent contributions to the survey that inspired this article.

Available Online: 2021-04-26

Abstract

Abstract

By using risk-adjusted price signals to transfer responsibility for property-level flood protection and recovery from governments to property owners, flood insurance represents a key tenet of the flood risk management (FRM) paradigm. The Government of Canada has worked with insurers to introduce flood insurance for the first time as a part of a broader shift towards FRM to limit the growing costs of flooding. The viability of flood insurance in Canada, however, has been questioned by research that disputes the utility of purchasing coverage by property owners. This study tested this assumption by drawing on public opinion survey data to assess factors that influence decisions about the utility of insurance. The findings reveal that Canadians have limited knowledge of flood insurance coverage, exhibit a low willingness-to-pay for both insurance and property-level flood protection measures, and expect governments to shoulder much of the financial burden of flood recovery through disaster assistance.
- Flood insurance,
- Flood risk management,
- Risk-sharing,
- Willingness-to-pay

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References(63)

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