Water Stewardship Information Sources

Citation Jakob, M, Holm, K, Lazarte, E and Church, M. 2014. A flood risk assessment for the city of Chilliwack on the Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada. International Journal of River Basin Management. DOI:10.1080/15715124.2014.903259
Organization BGC Engineering
URL http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15715124.2014.903259?journalCode=trbm20
Abstract/Description or Keywords Flood hazard management in Canada is predicated on an event of arbitrary return period – the ‘design flood’, which on the Fraser River is the flood of record, with an estimated return period of 500 years. Recent studies have demonstrated that the existing dikes will not contain design flood levels, in a location where the potential consequences of flooding have increased exponentially during the past century. This suggests that a hazard-based approach is questionable for effective flood management. A pilot flood risk assessment was completed for the City of Chilliwack, 80 km east of Vancouver. We assessed direct and indirect economic losses for three hypothetical dike breach scenarios for flood return periods from 100 to 1000 years. We estimate that total losses would exceed CND $1 billion (€720 million) for the flood scenarios examined, not including intangibles such as emotional and cultural losses, environmental contamination, or changes in the quality and abundance of aquatic and terrestrial habitat. The study concludes with recommendations that would lead to a risk-based decision-making framework for flood mitigation design and emergency preparedness.
Information Type article
Regional Watershed Lower Fraser
Sub-watershed if known Fraser River
Aquifer #
Comments
Project status
Contact Name Matthias Jakob
Contact Email [email protected]