Water Stewardship Information Sources
| Citation | Fraser Basin Council and Alington Group Planning + Architecture Inc. 2008. Flood Hazard Area Land Use Management: Review of Flood Hazard Are Land Use Management in BC. Fraser Basin Council. |
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| Organization | Fraser Basin Council |
| URL | http://www.fraserbasin.bc.ca/_Library/Water/report_land_use_and_flood_review_2008.pdf |
| Abstract/Description or Keywords | Legislative changes to the Land Title Act and the Local Government Act as well as three other provincial statutes, in 2003 and 2004, granted local governments the authority to manage land use in flood hazard areas. Key provisions of these legislative changes included the removal of BC Ministry of Environment approval for subdivisions and floodplain bylaws within flood hazard areas, and the granting of greater authority to local governments with the proviso that provincial guidelines be taken into consideration. This report documents the results of an initiative by the Fraser Basin Council to determine how these 2003 and 2004 legislative changes with respect to floodplain management have been implemented. Given the importance of floodplain management and the significant changes in roles and responsibilities, the objectives were to document what has been working well, what challenges exist and what improvements are needed with respect to: • The current flood hazard management approach • The development of flood hazard management bylaws • The approval of subdivisions in flood hazard areas • The disposition of Crown lands in flood hazard areas Following a scoping/feasibility study in 2007, a detailed survey was prepared and circulated in 2008 to all local governments, Ministry of Transportation Approving Officers, Crown Lands Management Officers (responsible for Crown land disposition in the Integrated Land Management Bureau), flood safety staff in the Ministry of Environment, and applicable private consulting engineers and geoscientists. A total of 106 responses were received, some from each of the province’s nine Ministry of Environment regions; from nearly half of the 157 municipalities, and over 40% of the 27 regional districts in B.C. This represents a good cross section from different geographic areas of the province, different jurisdictional sizes, and different types of practitioners. The high response rate coupled with the number of detailed responses to this questionnaire, indicate both strong interest and dedication to flood hazard management. The responses repeatedly demonstrate that those working in this specialized field are well aware of the importance of risk management and are very concerned that the public interest be protected. The vast majority of respondents (90%) consider flood hazard management to be an issue in their community or region and almost all of those respondents indicated that it has been an issue for over five years. Four out of five respondents (80%) stated that their local government has a bylaw that regulates construction in flood hazard areas. Survey respondents have a large amount of experience. The majority indicated that they have been working with flood hazard management for more than ten years (56%), and many have worked in their current position for longer than 10 years (35%). For all but a few respondents, flood hazard management is an important responsibility that occurs in conjunction with other activities, but is not the primary component of their workload. Flood hazard management occupies no more than 20% of the workload of 89% of all respondents. |
| Information Type | report |
| Regional Watershed | Province |
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| Project status | complete |
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