Oct 29, 2025 to Mar 18, 2026 (Multiple Dates): NRCan-CWRA Webinar Series
The Canadian Water Resources Association (CWRA) is pleased to announce a two-part webinar series in collaboration with Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO). This series will educate current and prospective partners on the Flood Hazard Identification and Mapping Program (FHIMP), the Federal Flood Mapping Guidelines Series and other significant flood-related initiatives led by the CCMEO. The first installment of this webinar series was hosted in Fall 2025 with the second part now available.
Cette série de webinaires s'adresse aux praticiens de la cartographie des inondations, aux chercheurs, aux parties intéressées et au grand public, en leur offrant la possibilité d'assister gratuitement à des présentations d'experts en la matière.
Cet événement est gratuit et sera proposé dans les deux langues officielles. Les enregistrements de la présentation et les ressources seront disponibles en ligne après la session.
Cette série de webinaires est soutenue par Ressources naturelles Canada.
Ne manquez pas cette occasion !
This webinar series offers a unique opportunity to explore critical advances in flood mapping science. We hope you’ll join us for part 2 this Winter.
Pour plus d'informations, veuillez contacter info@cwra.org
Part 2 (Winter 2026)
- Mozhdeh Shahbazi (Computer Vision Scientist, Natural Resources Canada)
- Speaker Bio: Mozhdeh Shahbazi (PhD, PEng) brings over 15 years of expertise in photogrammetry, computer vision, robotic vision, and geospatial artificial intelligence. She has held roles in both academia—as a professor—and in the private sector as a scientific manager, machine learning specialist, and survey engineer. In her current position at NRCan, Mozhdeh leads the development of advanced solutions for aligning and fusing multi-source multi-modal data, producing high-resolution foundational maps, and analyzing landscape changes across Canada using cutting-edge GeoAI techniques. She is also leading efforts to automate the modernization of historical airborne imagery. Additionally, Mozhdeh drives several initiatives exploring the application of quantum computing technologies within the geospatial domain.
- Presentation Description: This presentation provides an overview of the development process of a series of geospatial foundation models, Planaura. It demonstrates how these models are best adapted to Canadian landscapes and how they are used to achieve the task of land-cover change detection. In addition, the role of these foundation models in other recognition tasks such as flood extent mapping will be discussed.
- Gabriela Siles (Professor, Universite Laval)
- Speaker Bio: Gabriela Siles is a professor at the Department of Geomatics of the Université Laval, Quebec. Her research focuses on geodesy and, more broadly, on radar and optical remote sensing, including altimetry, for freshwater applications. She has been involved in the Surface Water and Ocean Topography Mission (SWOT) project since 2018 and she is part of the international and the Canadian SWOT scientific team. She closely works with the SWOT algorithm development team from the CNES and with LEGOS (France). She collaborates with various Canadian governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, and universities on projects involving this mission and other Earth observation technologies.
- Presentation Description: The presentation will cover preliminary results on evaluation of Global Navigation Satellite System Interferometric Reflectometry (GNSS-IR) and ka-band radar altimetry as alternative methods for river winter hydrometry. The first results strengthen the evidence that GNSS and SAR altimetric signals can reliably capture changes in river ice dynamics and detect associated flooding events. These techniques provide a valuable complementary tool for flood-risk management, particularly in environments where traditional monitoring methods are limited.
- Ahmad Shakibaeinia (Professor, Polytechnique Montreal)
- Speaker Bio: Dr. Ahmad Shakibaeinia is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Geological & Mining Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal and holds the Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Computational Hydrosystems. His research interests are in computational hydraulics and fluid mechanics, with a focus on developing numerical modelling techniques, supported by high-performance computing and AI, for complex multi-physics hydro-environmental processes. His work addresses a wide range of problems, including hydrodynamics, sediment transport, ice dynamics, fluid–structure interaction, and extreme events such as floods and debris flows.
- Presentation Description: In this presentation, we explore a new hybrid modeling strategy that blends physics-based hydrodynamic models with emerging machine learning technique to meet the growing demand for fast and reliable flood prediction. This approach substantially reduces computational cost while preserving physical fidelity, enabling real-time forecasting and high-resolution scenario analysis.
- Heather McGrath (Geospatial Scientist, Natural Resources Canada)
- Speaker Bio: Heather McGrath is a geospatial scientist with Natural Resources Canada, focusing on how land-use and climate change alter watershed processes and flood risk. She combines spatial analytics, raster modelling, and machine learning to assess changes in drainage efficiency and flood susceptibility over time. Her work integrates modelling, validation, and visualization to support long-term flood assessment and adaptive management, providing predictive frameworks for hazard
mapping and decision-making. - Presentation Description: This project aims to improve and refine flood susceptibility maps across Canada by incorporating new datasets, updating modelling approaches, and a full timeline of maps. The result is decision-ready datasets that reflect evolving flood likelihood and flood trends over time, enabling more accurate and actionable insights.
- Speaker Bio: Heather McGrath is a geospatial scientist with Natural Resources Canada, focusing on how land-use and climate change alter watershed processes and flood risk. She combines spatial analytics, raster modelling, and machine learning to assess changes in drainage efficiency and flood susceptibility over time. Her work integrates modelling, validation, and visualization to support long-term flood assessment and adaptive management, providing predictive frameworks for hazard
- Andrew Weiss (Water Resources Modelling Lead, KGS Group) and Méven Huiban (Senior Coastal Scientist, DHI Water & Environment, Inc.)
- Biographies des intervenants :
- Andrew Weiss is KGS Group’s Water Resources Modelling Lead with over 12 years of experience in a range of hydrologic and hydraulic studies that have included hydrologic modelling, 1D, 2D and 3D hydraulic modelling, erosion protection, and river training works. Andrew has led the execution of a number of flood mapping studies across Canada, including in Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba, and Yukon.
- Méven Huiban is a Senior Coastal Modeller and Project Manager with over 17 years of international experience at DHI Water & Environment Inc., delivering advanced coastal process studies across Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region. He brings deep technical expertise in coastal hydrodynamics, wave modeling, sediment transport, and climate resilience. In Canada, Méven has led or contributed to numerous flood mapping and shoreline hazard studies in British Columbia, the Great Lakes, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Notably, he led the development of the Newfoundland and Labrador Atlas of Storm Surge and Wave Climates and contributed to the NL Water Resources Management Division’s technical methodology for flood hazard mapping.
- Presentation Description: This presentation will provide an overview of the outcomes and key takeaways associated with the National Feasibility Study for Regional-Scale Flood Hazard Modelling and Mapping undertaken by KGS Group and DHI. The presentation will focus on the technical recommendations and guidelines developed as part of the study, the case studies undertaken as part of the project, and future research and actions that should be taken to further support regional-scale flood hazard modelling and mapping activities.
- Biographies des intervenants :
Part 1 (Fall 2025)
- Nicky Hastings (physicien, Ressources naturelles Canada)
- Biographie de l'orateur: Nicky Hastings est physicienne à la Commission géologique du Canada à Ressources naturelles Canada, spécialisée dans les sciences côtières et la réduction des risques de catastrophes. Avec plus de 15 ans d'expérience dans le domaine, elle est devenue experte dans le développement et l'adaptation des méthodes d'évaluation des risques pour faire face aux inondations côtières et aux changements côtiers à travers le Canada. Le travail de Nicky se concentre sur la compréhension et l'atténuation des impacts des ondes de tempête côtières, de l'élévation du niveau de la mer, du changement côtier et des risques de tsunami. Elle collabore étroitement avec des équipes internes, des agences gouvernementales locales, des représentants du secteur privé et des institutions académiques pour développer conjointement des connaissances qui peuvent éclairer la prise de décision en matière de réduction des risques de catastrophe et d'adaptation au climat.
- Sean Ferguson (Chargé de recherche, Conseil national de la recherche du Canada)
- Biographie du conférencier: Sean Ferguson est agent de recherche au Centre de recherche en génie océanique, côtier et fluvial du Conseil national de recherches du Canada. Il est spécialisé dans l'application de la modélisation physique et numérique pour soutenir la recherche liée aux systèmes fluviaux et côtiers. Il a participé et dirigé une grande variété de projets liés à l'évaluation des risques, à la gestion des risques d'inondation et d'érosion, à l'hydraulique fluviale et au transport des sédiments.
- Description de la présentation: Pour cette présentation conjointe, Sean Ferguson (CNRC) et Nicky Hastings (RNCan) donneront un aperçu des nouvelles lignes directrices pour l'évaluation des risques d'inondation côtière à l'aide d'analyses basées sur le risque. Nous présenterons diverses études de cas communautaires qui illustrent la façon dont ces lignes directrices ont été appliquées dans des évaluations réelles des risques d'inondation côtière,
- David Huard (Specialist, Ouranos)
- Speaker Bio: David Huard is a physicist working at Ouranos since 2009 on the development of climate services. He holds a PhD in water sciences and pursued postdoctoral work on Arctic sea ice modeling. His interests include uncertainty analysis, decision making and the use of climate data for operational purposes. David contributes to the development of a pan-Canadian online platform for climate services, and is a lead author of the IPCC 7th assessment.
- Louise Kreissig-Arnal (Hydrologist, Ouranos)
- Speaker Bio: Louise Arnal holds a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Reading (2019), in collaboration with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). More recently, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Saskatchewan. As both an artist and a scientist, Louise also aims to foster scientific engagement by merging science and art. Louise joined Ouranos in 2023, where she primarily focuses on hydro-climatological modeling in Quebec.
- Presentation Description: This project aims to support the Quebec government in hydrological modeling of flood zones and hydroclimatic hazards in the context of climate change, in addition to providing the academic community with a research environment. The project is structured around two work packages: the use of physically based surface schemes for surface runoff simulation by the Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM); and the integration of these hydrological simulations into a larger ensemble in order to better account for the uncertainty of hydrological modeling in the characterization of flood zones.
- Steven Weijs (UBC)
- Speaker Bio: Dr. Steven Weijs is currently a Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia. His research interests are water resources management and hydrology, with a special focus on the dynamics of uncertainty and information within that context. The larger research question that he tries to address is how to optimally channel information flows from our observations of complex water systems and knowledge of underlying physics, to enable informed decisions about water resources. Dr. Weijs holds a Ph.D. and M. Sc. in Water Resources Management and Civil Engineering from TU Delft (Delft University of Technology) in the Netherlands. After his Ph.D. he was a AXA Postdoctoral Fellow at EPFL in Switzerland working on mountain hydrology for 4 years, before joining UBC.
- Presentation Description: In this presentation, we look at a number of data driven methods to predict the distribution of daily streamflow in ungauged basins in British Columbia and the Yukon, including machine learning of daily flow hydrographs and parametric distributions. Probability distributions are compared with reference distributions using relative entropy, also known as Kullback-Leibler divergence. I discuss interpretation of these metrics and issues around low-probability events and intermittent flow regimes.
- Maxim Fortin (Ressources naturelles Canada)
- Speaker Bio: Maxim is an engineer with 15 years of experience in the fields of water resources and flood management in Canada and internationally. Since 2021, he works as an engineering advisor with the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). At NRCan, he provides technical leadership for the implementation and rollout of the Flood Hazard Identification and Mapping Program (FHIMP) – Canada’s flagship initiative to support and increase flood hazard mapping coverage in the country.
- Presentation Description: Since 2021, the Flood Hazard Identification and Mapping Program (FHIMP) has been updating Canada’s flood mapping in partnership with provinces and territories, prioritizing high-risk areas and public accessibility. Advances in numerical modeling and computing performance now enable fast flood modeling at regional and global scales, providing new types of hazard information to fill gaps between local & detailed engineering maps. Multiple modeling scales and levels of detail are being developed and adopted by stakeholders at local, provincial/territorial, and federal levels, supporting regional efforts and national applications for insurance, disaster assistance, and public awareness. This presentation highlights recent developments across modeling scales in Canada, with an emphasis on regional approaches. We outline how these methods can be combined into a seamless, adaptable flood mapping framework that matches detail to use cases and jurisdictional needs.
- Robert Chlumsky (Heron Hydrologic)
- Speaker Bio: Dr. Robert Chlumsky is a Water Resources Engineer with a wide range of experience in water resources applications, and is currently President of Heron Hydrologic. Robert completed his PhD at the University of Waterloo in 2024, where he researched the blended hydrologic model structure and also developed the Blackbird software for large-scale and real-time flood mapping. Robert has completed many projects using the Raven hydrologic modelling framework, and has also delivered courses to professionals and students on topics ranging from hydrology to data analysis. Robert is also the Past President of the Canadian Water Resources Association Ontario Branch.
- Presentation Description: The presentation will cover the methodology behind Blackbird, and also discuss the research undertaken in the Mad River watershed for low-gradient flood mapping. Modifications to Blackbird that highlighted issues with the underlying Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) method will be presented, including a discussion of how this may impact other flood mapping projects across Canada.
En savoir plus sur le programme d'identification et de cartographie des risques d'inondation (FHIMP)
Le programme d'identification et de cartographie des risques d'inondation (FHIMP) est une initiative collaborative du gouvernement canadien dirigée par Ressources naturelles Canada (RNCan), en partenariat avec Sécurité publique Canada et Environnement et Changement climatique Canada (ECCC). Le FHIMP investit dans la mise à jour des capacités existantes du Canada en matière de cartographie des inondations.
En partenariat avec les gouvernements provinciaux et territoriaux, le FHIMP vise à compléter les cartes des risques d'inondation des zones à haut risque au Canada et à rendre ces informations accessibles. Ces cartes faciliteront la planification des mesures d'urgence en orientant l'emplacement des voies d'évacuation et soutiendront l'aménagement du territoire en identifiant les endroits où construire les infrastructures essentielles et les structures d'atténuation des inondations telles que les digues. Les cartes des inondations fournissent des informations fiables sur les risques d'inondation et soutiennent les décideurs et les Canadiens dans leurs efforts d'adaptation à un climat changeant tout en protégeant les biens et les vies.
Un autre élément important du FHIMP est le soutien qu'il apporte aux universités, aux instituts de recherche et aux organisations à but non lucratif qui travaillent à l'avancement de la science des inondations. Grâce à un financement ciblé, le FHIMP permet le développement de modèles d'inondation régionaux, de méthodes améliorées pour incorporer les impacts du changement climatique et d'outils pour traiter l'incertitude dans la cartographie des risques d'inondation. Cet investissement contribue à combler le fossé entre la recherche et la pratique en veillant à ce que les nouvelles approches scientifiques soient testées, affinées et partagées avec les utilisateurs dans tout le pays.
Les prochains webinaires présenteront certains de ces travaux, en mettant en évidence les projets innovants financés par FHIMP et en démontrant comment ces efforts contribuent à l'élaboration de cartes d'inondation plus précises, résilientes et orientées vers l'avenir.
En savoir plus sur l'L’Association canadienne des ressources hydriques
L'L’Association canadienne des ressources hydriques (ACRH) est un organisme de bienfaisance national enregistré composé de membres des secteurs public, privé et universitaire qui s'engagent à promouvoir une gestion responsable, innovante et efficace des ressources en eau.
Créée en 1947 sous le nom de Western Canada Reclamation Association, l'ACRH est la seule organisation nationale qui s'occupe de toutes les questions relatives aux ressources en eau dans toutes les régions du Canada. Nous offrons une gamme de services et de programmes axés sur le développement professionnel, l'apport d'expertise et de conseils, l'éducation et la collaboration.
