Photo courtesy Gordon McBean

Stormy weather on the horizon should prompt updates to building codes, according to leading climate expert, Gordon McBean.

Amidst predictions of heavy rains, flash floods, and tornadoes, the impact of climate change is expected to factor into the 2015 National Building Code of Canada (NBC) .

At a recent Halifax meeting of the Provincial-Territorial Conference of Ministers Responsible for Local Government, leading climate expert, Gordon McBean, commented on the importance of updating the building code to reflect these erratic weather conditions. McBean, who is also a professor at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) and policy chair for its Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR), indicates building codes were designed based on climate norms of the past 30 years, but do not consider the changing weather of the future.

Traditionally, records from Environment Canada (EC) were analyzed and used to determine the code. Assessing future trends in addition to historical data reflects a drastic change in philosophy, according to Cathy Taraschuk, a senior technical advisor with the National Research Council's Institute for Research in Construction (NRC-IRC's) Canadian Codes Centre.