CRCAG Meeting with City of Calgary’s Flood Resiliency Group

 CRCAG representatives Tony Morris, Gloria Mak, Josh Traptow, and David Carlson met with the City of Calgary’s recently formed flood resiliency group.
 
The flood resiliency group has been tasked to implement the 27 recommendations outlined in the City of Calgary’s Expert Management Panel on River Flood Mitigation report released in June, as part of their mandate.
 
A high-level implementation plan was developed by the group and presented to the Priorities and Finance Committee on Oct 28, 2014. The plan was forwarded on to Council for funding consideration in the recent budget deliberations and was approved last week. A more detailed plan will now be established and the first progress report from the flood resiliency group will be presented to the Utilities and Corporate Services Committee at the end of April 2015.
 
Plan Highlights

River Forecasting and Monitoring

• The City of Calgary is fortifying upstream river and weather monitoring systems
• The City will coordinate the integration of new monitoring equipment with the Province’s Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Ministry (ESRD), who will operate the equipment, and work with TransAlta on an ongoing basis in managing river levels on the Bow river
• The owner of the infrastructure decides what to do in the event of a flood:
• On the Bow, an option may be to give ESRD responsibility for disaster response, on behalf of TransAlta
• On the Elbow, the City determines what to do with the Glenmore

Glenmore Upgrades

• Replacement of wooden stop log system with automated steel gates which will increase the storage capacity of the reservoir and allow for the City to mitigate for floods as large as a 1:40 year event
• A funding request was submitted to the Alberta Community Resilience Program and it looks like it’s a good cost/benefit analysis
• Water Resources is currently in the detail design phase for the upgrades
• Upgrades to commence in late 2016 and 2017

River Berms

• Erosion points along the Bow and Elbow rivers have been cataloged
• A prioritized list of upgrades will be established using a triple bottom line analysis
• Looking to trying to get a 100 year design strategy
• Will consider Provincial upstream mitigation efforts and land impact in deciding where to implement river berm improvements or upgrades
• Improvements or upgrades of river berms will be to a standard of 1:100
• All mitigation strategies are being evaluated and likely a combination of several strategies

Flood Damage Assessment

• The Province’s flood damage assessment will help inform triple bottom line analyses undertaken by The City of Calgary
• The Province is trying to develop models for  “damage curves” to analyze cost/benefit, which is being carried out by IBI

River Morphology Study

• Morphology study for the Bow and Elbow rivers are underway to look at the dynamics of sedimentation and possibility of removing accumulated sediment deposits from the 2013 flood

Funding

• Many flood resiliency projects are actually within the City’s infrastructure plans so funding is committed. Additional funding is supplemented by the Province and if a funding program has concerns the City will reevaluate it.

The City and the Province are pursuing their work streams and these are gradually coming together.
 
Next Meeting with the City’s flood resiliency group is targeted for February 2015