On July 14, 2004, Peterborough, ON endured record amounts of overnight rainfall, and by the following morning, a state of emergency was declared. It was the city’s second “100 year flood” in two years.
According to local reports at the time, over 80 per cent of the pipes in the city’s stormwater system were undersized and many had been installed at the turn of the 20th century or earlier. On top of that, the paved-over downtown core which experienced the most intense rainfall was unable to withstand or appropriately displace the water. The damage was extensive.
More than 15 years later, the small city with a population of around 85,000 is integral to a study led by Carleton University professors Shawn Kenny from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Kathryne Dupré from the Department of Psychology.
Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Kenny and Dupré’s study has two key objectives.
By Ainslie Coghill
Photos by Ainslie Coghill
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