Flood Mitigation in the Bow Basin

March 31st was the due date for multiple reports from engineering groups to submit assessments of “flood reduction projects options“. As those reports become publically available they will be added to the Alberta WaterPortal for our users to view. 

One final report that is already public is Alberta WaterSMART‘s final report for the Bow Basin Flood Mitigation and Watershed Management Project. It was submitted to the ADM Flood Recovery Task Force on March 31st. This project was funded by Alberta Innovates – Energy and Environment Solutions and the Task Force.

From the Alberta WaterSMART website:

The report presents the modelling results and extensive discussion for each individual mitigation option as well as what might be possible for this Spring, Spring of 2015 and longer term options to achieve three different target flood flows. The project used the Bow River Operations Model (BROM) built by Bow River water managers and experts over the four years prior to the flood. Many different approaches to mitigation were explored: changing existing reservoir operations, diversions, dry dams, wetland storage, land management, restoring natural river functions, and relocation.  

As always, we are committed to ensuring that the valuable feedback of our community is relayed to decision makers and report writers. If you have any thoughts on the report posted, or mitigation in Alberta, please post a comment below, send us an email, or message the WaterPortal through Facebook or Twitter.