Historical Flood Events (HFE) in Canada

This historical flood events data layer created by NRCan's Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO)'s Flood Mapping team documents 1400 flood events in over 7000 locations in Canada dating from 1696.

The Flood Mapping Team within NRCan’s Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO) has completed the digitization of these approximately 1400 historical flood events. By scraping publication records for flood event details, they created a publicly available data layer consisting of point data with attributes for flood location, years/seasons, and details. Sources are available for every point. The maps can be a starting point for understanding regional flood trends or for training machine learning models for predicting nation-wide flood risk.
CCMEO’s Flood Mapping Team is advancing flood mapping practices in Canada by leading the Flood Hazard Identification and Mapping Program, compiling existing flood hazard data through the National Flood Hazard Data Layer, digitizing historical flood maps, publishing flood mapping guidelines, and researching innovative ways to advance flood mapping practices relating to geomatics. Overall, the modernization of flood mapping practices will help communities understand and manage their flood risk.

The point groupings correspond to the locations that were affected by the same event. The inventory of past flooding has been compiled from various public sources and standardized into a common data model. Flooding events for which no location was included in the sources are positioned on the place name of the location affected by the flooding. The event positions do not indicate where the flooding occurred. It should be noted that no consultation was conducted with the various providers and stakeholders of historical flood data. Disparities in content between the various sources result in an inconsistent product. No warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information provided. The absence of information does not mean that no flooding has occurred.
Additional Resources:
Update Frequency: Ongoing

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Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated September 11, 2026, 07:28 (UTC)
Created March 24, 2026, 21:06 (UTC)
Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title
Title for the Dataset.
Historical Flood Events (HFE) in Canada
Description
A description of the dataset.

This historical flood events data layer created by NRCan's Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO)'s Flood Mapping team documents 1400 flood events in over 7000 locations in Canada dating from 1696.

The Flood Mapping Team within NRCan’s Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO) has completed the digitization of these approximately 1400 historical flood events. By scraping publication records for flood event details, they created a publicly available data layer consisting of point data with attributes for flood location, years/seasons, and details. Sources are available for every point. The maps can be a starting point for understanding regional flood trends or for training machine learning models for predicting nation-wide flood risk.
CCMEO’s Flood Mapping Team is advancing flood mapping practices in Canada by leading the Flood Hazard Identification and Mapping Program, compiling existing flood hazard data through the National Flood Hazard Data Layer, digitizing historical flood maps, publishing flood mapping guidelines, and researching innovative ways to advance flood mapping practices relating to geomatics. Overall, the modernization of flood mapping practices will help communities understand and manage their flood risk.

The point groupings correspond to the locations that were affected by the same event. The inventory of past flooding has been compiled from various public sources and standardized into a common data model. Flooding events for which no location was included in the sources are positioned on the place name of the location affected by the flooding. The event positions do not indicate where the flooding occurred. It should be noted that no consultation was conducted with the various providers and stakeholders of historical flood data. Disparities in content between the various sources result in an inconsistent product. No warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information provided. The absence of information does not mean that no flooding has occurred.
Additional Resources:
Update Frequency: Ongoing
Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
0.11
Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
2022-11-03
Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
Field Value
Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
public
License
License used to access the dataset.
Open Government License
Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
Location
Location of the dataset.
https://climate.esri.ca/datasets/EsriCanada::historical-flood-events-hfe-in-canada
Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner
Owner of the dataset.
EsriCanadaContent
Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
Esri Canada
Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
[email protected]
Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
Esri Canada
Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
Author
Author of the dataset.
EsriCanadaContent
Author Email
Email of the author.
Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
2022-11-03
Field Value
Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
82cb81288e814fde96fa9d8f5e7ed7f8
Language
Language(s) of the dataset
English
Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
https://climate.esri.ca/datasets/EsriCanada::historical-flood-events-hfe-in-canada
Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
Field Value
Version
Version of the datatset
None
Source
Source of the dataset.
None
Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
Esri Canada
Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
Field Value
Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
Field Value
Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
1684
Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
42
Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
70728
Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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