Where could it flood?

The municipality initiated a process to map pluvial, fluvial, and coastal flood hazards across the Halifax region. This mapping process covered approximately 10,000km of water courses and waterbody length as well as over 300km of coastline. Additionally, the municipality has completed detailed flood modelling for the Sackville and Little Sackville River Floodplain and the Shubenacadie Floodplain. The interactive flood map includes all three studies in a single location. This map is the first of its kind in Halifax and one of the most comprehensive publicly available municipal flood resources in Canada.

Access the municipal flood map

These maps have been made publicly available to improve our understanding of flood prone areas. The information on this website will help you understand what these maps mean and how you can use them.

These maps can be used to:

• raise awareness about flooding;
• understand if where you live, work, and play has a higher likelihood of flooding;
• identify locations where more detailed modelling is needed;
• prioritize flood prone areas for emergency response;
• identify flood prone areas for flood mitigation studies; and
• integrate maps into long-term planning.

These maps have limitations that are important to remember:

• they do not show the precise limits of the floodplain;
• they cannot replace detailed mapping completed by licensed professionals to make property specific or infrastructure decisions;
• they are static. Changes to infrastructure, land use, and more detailed modelling since they were completed will not be captured, without further updates to data collection and modelling; and
• these maps are not intended for asset level decision making. This means you could use them to identify if flooding may happen nearby but won’t be able to tell you if you should raise your building or by how much. 

We can’t make maps of the future. Instead, we plan for the future by mapping the present and applying future conditions. The future that the municipality is planning for includes climate change, including more intense rainfall and floods. All of the mapping includes climate change projections to the year 2100. By including climate projections, we can better prepare for the future and what is likely to happen based on scientific consensus, instead of only considering what has occurred in the past.