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qathet Regional District undertakes flood mapping project

Rising water levels are forecast and study will be of value for safety and planning
flood maps
RISING WATERS: qathet Regional District is undertaking a flood mapping project that will identify the anticipated boundaries of anticipated flood events and the probabilities of occurrence in the coastal areas of the regional district, Tla’amin Nation and City of Powell River.

In response to the threat of climate change, qathet Regional District will be involved in a flood mapping initiative for the region’s coastlines.

The project, to be delivered over the coming year, seeks to map the impending coastal impacts due to climate change, said manager of emergency services Ryan Thoms.

“The project will produce coastal inundation maps showing the anticipated impacts resulting from sea level rise, storm surges and coastal erosion within the region, including the City of Powell River, Tla’amin Nation lands and rural communities,” said Thoms. “The flood maps will identify the anticipated boundaries of anticipated flood events and the probabilities of occurrence.

“The improved mapping will be of significant value for public safety, infrastructure planning, as well as the protection of environmental and economic values throughout the region.”

Thoms said this project builds upon a coastal risk assessment, which was concluded in March of last year. He said it looked at climate change-induced sea level rise and storm surges.

“What that meant was a really big overview, resulting in a map that was created looking at higher priority areas, areas of key infrastructure, coinciding with areas where we would predict some negative results or impacts,” said Thoms. “We wanted to take advantage of disaster mitigation program funding to go the next step, which is to drill down into all of those higher risk areas that we see around the region and do detailed mapping.”

The team of geotechnical people and oceanographers will be out in the next week or solooking at the coastline. The goal will be to build detailed maps that would show inundation zones, due to sea level rise, over the coming decades.

“When you look at the map and superimpose half a metre by mid-century, it would be quite different if that half a metre is up against bedrock, versus a sandy, soft bank,” said Thoms. “It’s not just the height of land but also the type of geology.

“That will be a really interesting part of the project in the coming year.”

The regional district had hoped to run a more expansive program than the one it will be conducting. It applied for federal and provincial funding for the mapping project but only the provincial funding came through because the federal program was oversubscribed.

Instead of doing the entire region this coming year, the program will just be covering the mainland portion of the regional district. The province has announced a different funding stream that it will be supporting in the future and Thoms is optimistic the regional district will be able to find the funding to finish the island communities in 2020.

When the first phase of the program is complete and there are mainland inundation and impact maps, Thoms said the regional district will look at some public engagement throughout the area so the public can come out and see the work that has been done.

Climate change adaptation and mitigation is a regional district priority, said Thoms. He said this will highlight what sea level rise will mean for a “pretty big coastal community” such as the regional district.

“Everybody is paying attention to this so it’s great to bring this and hopefully let each of these authorities responsible to have some time to plan around that,” said Thoms. “The answer in terms of mitigation or adaptation may be different depending on location and type of infrastructure. It’s a really important first step to try and understand what it would look like.”