Scholarships and funded projects

Principal Researcher: Ève Pouliot, Associate Professor in Social Work (UQAC)
Co-researcher: Christine Gervais, associate professor in nursing (UQO); Kristel Tardif-Grenier, associate professor in psycho-education (UQO).

Partner: École secondaire Sieur-de-Coulonge (Outaouais)
Funding provided: $99,906

Project summary:
In 2017 and 2019, the Rural Municipality of Pontiac and its residents faced severe spring flooding. Our ongoing work, funded by SSHRC (2021-2023) and conducted in collaboration with two Outaouais high schools, reveals that these floods appear to have resulted in a variety of physical and mental health consequences for adolescents who were exposed to them. This finding is consistent with the results of other studies conducted following floods, which mention that young people who are victims of floods are at risk of experiencing both physical and mental health problems, as well as difficulties in family and school functioning. In such a context, it seems relevant to better understand the psychosocial impacts of floods, both positive and negative, on the lives of adolescents and their parents living in rural areas, while promoting their power to act. This research project aims to document the journey of youth and their parents following flooding in rural areas, using digital storytelling. This participatory method, which will be conducted through individual and group interviews, will help participants better understand the events they experienced during the floods by allowing them to analyze the turning points associated with this disaster in their lives. The results and solutions identified by this research will be transferable to other regions or communities frequently exposed to flooding.

Principal Researcher : Michael Bourdeau-Brien, associate professor, Department of Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (Université Laval).
Co-researcher: Mathieu Boudreault, Professor in the Department of Mathematics (UQAM); Marie-Ève Gaboury-Bonhomme, Professor in the Department of Agri-Food Economics and Consumer Sciences (Université Laval); Danielle Maltais, Full Professor in Social Work (UQAC); Lota D. Tamini, Full Professor in the Department of Agri-Food Economics and Consumer Sciences (Université Laval)
Partners: MAMH, Financière Agricole du Québec, CIRANO.
Funding granted: $100,000

Project summary:
For agricultural producers, flooding not only has the potential to damage their homes, but can literally destroy the fruits of intensive weeks of work. These producers reside predominantly in rural communities that are generally perceived to lack the resources and expertise to manage flooding and its consequences. Supporting affected producers and communities requires the development of effective and efficient risk management strategies to mitigate risk upstream, while promoting recovery downstream from these disasters. The development of such strategies requires a knowledge of the risk specific to these communities, as well as a strong understanding of the overall consequences that result from floods. This knowledge of risk and consequences in the Quebec context remains to be perfected. This project responds to this gap by studying the consequences of flooding on rural agricultural communities in Quebec in a holistic manner. The diverse expertise of six university researchers combined with the field knowledge of two key partners allows for an examination of the observable social, economic, individual and community health consequences of historical floods. Simultaneously, the research team is modeling likely flood events to estimate the actual level of risk that affects communities, as well as the consequences in terms of economic, community vitality, and health care utilization. The project will target targeted interventions and suggest improvements to existing public policies.

Principal Researcher: Lily Lessard, full professor, Department of Health Sciences (UQAR).
Co-researcher: Johanne Saint-Charles, full professor, Department of Social and Public Communication (UQAM).
Partners : Comité de bassin versant de la rivière Chaudière (COBARIC); Réseau des groupes de femmes de Chaudière-Appalaches; Contact-Nature-Rivière-à-Mars; Municipalité de l’Anse-Saint-Jean.
Funding Granted: $80,000

Project summary:
Floods and other disasters occur in environments marked by power relations and social inequalities, but their management is often planned and carried out in a “neutral” manner. This has the effect of excluding or underserving certain populations. This project aims to better understand how gender and other social factors are taken into account, or not, in the guidelines and actions of people and organizations involved in flood management in Quebec. This first component will take the form of a literature review and a survey. A second component of the research, centered around interviews with women who have suffered recurrent floods in Beauce (Chaudière-Appalaches), will allow us to better understand their experiences, the opportunities for them to talk about disasters, as well as their needs and wishes in terms of recognition of their experiences. The project also includes a component for the collective creation of stories of these girls and women based on the digital storytelling approach. This last component will allow for the experimentation of the creation of a space dedicated to the stories of women affected by recurrent floods. The potential of this type of space to contribute to flood recovery and individual and collective resilience will be qualitatively evaluated. All of the research will be carried out by an intersectoral team and partners who are active in the region in terms of integrated water management by watershed and the fight for women’s rights in the Chaudière-Appalaches region, and with national authorities such as the ROBVQ, the MELCC, and the MSSS through the work carried out under the new action plan for women’s health and well-being 2020-2024.

Principal Researcher: Nathalie St-Amour, Associate Professor, Department of Social Work (UQO).

Co-researcher: Mylène Riva, Associate Professor in Health Geography (McGill University)

Partners: City of Gatineau; Centre de santé et de services sociaux de l’Outaouais (CISSO), Comité de vie de quartier du Vieux-Gatineau (CVQ-VG)
Funding Provided: $66,480

Project summary: Between 2017 and 2019, the citizens, decision-makers and stakeholders of Gatineau had to deal with, in addition to the health crisis, two successive episodes of flooding that affected the same geographic areas and the same residents. Some of these residents live in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas and others, on the other hand, live in communities considered socioeconomically advantaged. These difficult circumstances allow the researchers and the committee of partners who will accompany them to look at the impacts of successive flooding episodes for the affected citizens as well as the recovery process of these citizens according to a comparative approach based on socio-economic status. By mobilizing the concept of feeling at home and the recovery model developed by Cox and Perry (2011), the research will contribute to the scientific corpus on the accumulation of disasters and on the recovery stage of flood victims. These are two emerging themes in disaster impact studies. From a social perspective, the development of this new knowledge will be useful to the multi-sectoral collaborators on the project’s Partners Committee. A better understanding of the issues will lead to the development of more effective interventions. The team may even begin to think about environmental justice in the event that important differences emerge from a better understanding of the experiences of groups of residents with different socio-economic statuses.