calgary flood case study

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• Working Together
• Memory Bank

Flooding In Calgary

1883 – 2013

Calgary is a dynamic city built at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers.

This website tells the story of how flooding has impacted the city and its citizens over the years, and how the community has always come together to rebuild.

Timeline of Major Flood Events

Calgary Public Library PC_1325

1881 Fort Calgary: Located at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers, the six-year-old Northwest Mounted Police post was photographed by George Dawson of the Geological Survey of Canada.

Ice Jam Destroys Bridge

October 31, 1883

On the afternoon of October 31, 1883, the pedestrian bridge over the Elbow River was carried away amid icy waters. The debris threatened the Canadian Pacific Railway trestle bridge.

Glenbow Archives NA-1315-10

Washout on railway bridge on Elbow River, Calgary, Alberta.

New Bridge Destroyed

July 15, 1884

The rains began on June 22 and by July 15, the flood waters had destroyed the one bridge that survived the 1883 flood and the bridge built to replace the one lost the year before.

The City of Calgary, Corporate Records, Archives CalA 2013-029-005

Man surveying flood damage on the Bow near 2 nd St. East.

Col. Walker’s home floats away

June 17—19, 1897

The flood began on June 17 when the Bow River rose rapidly and overflowed its banks around midnight. The flood surge on the Elbow River hit in the early hours of June 19, 1897.

City of Calgary, Corporate Records, Archives CalA 2013-029-008

Men in HMS Cupid rowboat on flooded street downstream from the Langevin Bridge.

In Splendid Isolation: Calgary is cut off from North, South, East and West

July 2–5, 1902

The Bow’s rushing waters – comparable to the rapids and whirlpools of Niagara Falls – washed out bridges and cut off railway access to the city. Calgary was left isolated and without electricity.

Glenbow Library and Archives NA 4355-17

House in Elbow Park on 40 th Ave. SW

Centre Street Bridge Collapses

June 28, 1915

Record-breaking rainfall caused the rivers to rise to deadly levels. In addition to wiping out three of Calgary’s bridges (including the original Centre Street bridge) the flood of 1915 claimed several lives, including that of one of the city’s own workers.

Glenbow Library and Archives NA 2365-26

Crowds and automobiles on Mission Bridge over Elbow River.

Drought ends, floods begin

June 2, 1923

Southern Alberta had faced several years of drought conditions when the rain started falling on June 2.

Glenbow Library and Archives, NA 1451-39

Calgary Exhibition and Stampede horse barns flooded.

Worst Flood Since ’02

June 3, 1929

From Saturday morning, June 1 to Monday morning, June 2, the Bow River rose from 5.8 feet to over 11 feet. Monday morning the Elbow broke its banks. This would lead to the worst flooding in over 25 years.

Glenbow Library and Archives NA 2063-3

Glenmore Dam during the flood.

Glenmore Dam Saves City

June 5, 1932

Thanks to the newly-constructed Glenmore Dam much of the flooding was contained. Still, communities close to the rivers were affected and motorists were left stranded.

Glenbow Library and Archives NA 2864-1181

Dog pound rescue.

Ice Jam Causes Flooding

December 1–6, 1950

The Glenmore Dam could not have prevented the ice jam that started 1950’s winter flood. Rescue workers battled below-freezing temperatures to come to the aid of people (and dogs) stranded by the flood.

City of Calgary Deerfoot4

Deerfoot Trail becomes a lake.

Calgary grinds to a halt

The rivers, at a record high following three large rainstorms, broke their banks triggering a city-wide state of emergency. 1500 people were forced to evacuate while 40,000 homes and countless pathways and bridges sustained significant damage.

City of Calgary WC3C9185

Flooded residential street.

Calgary’s Most Damaging Flood

June 20, 2013

The costliest natural disaster in Canadian history, the flood of 2013 damaged or destroyed many homes and businesses as well as vital portions of the city’s infrastructure. In the absence of electricity, social media became a powerful tool to disperse information and bring Calgarians together.

Calgary Journal

10 years: The 2013 Calgary flood brought people together

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The impact of 18 intense hours of rain is still being felt today.

On June 19, 2013, Calgary saw an unprecedented amount of rain over the course of 15 to 18 hours, eventually leading to much as $6 billion in losses and property damage across southern Alberta and one Calgary life lost.

Aaron Stayner, a resident of Sunnyside (which was one of the suburbs that got hit hard) remember the events of the flood like it was yesterday.

“It was into like the early afternoon, early evening. We’re at a wrap-up party at the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association for our kids’ soccer, and I was there with my daughters and my wife was off-site somewhere else, and then all of a sudden, being a Twitter user, that’s when we started seeing the evacuation orders kind of coming over on Twitter,” Stayner said.

“There’s all this chatter through the gym that we’re in, being like, ‘we’ve got to evacuate, we’ve got to evacuate,’” Stayner said.

The high amount of rain led to the cancellation of Stayner’s charity golf tournament earlier that morning. At the time, Stayner didn’t feel as though this was something out of the ordinary.

As the rain picked up throughout the day it became anything but ordinary.

“It was kind of like this slow boil and you never really realized what was how bad it was potentially getting until all of a sudden you’re seeing Nenshi tweeting out, yes Sunnyside you gotta get out now,” Stayner said.

As the water levels started to rush towards Calgary, the City issued a flood warning, activated the Municipal Emergency Plan, declared a state of local emergency, and gave an evacuation notice for communities at risk.

At its peak, the flow rate of The Bow River was eight times its normal rate, The Elbow was 12 times its normal rate and the Glenmore Dam was seven times its normal rate.

City-wide disruptions accrued with 34,000 locations being left without electricity, more than 50 bus routes being canceled, and 1,600 people registering for support on just the first day were some of the many disruptions.

In total about 80,000 people were evacuated over the course of the flood, according to The City of Calgary.

The full impacts can be seen at  Calgary.ca

Aerial photo of flooding at Prince's Island Park. #yycflood pic.twitter.com/C8Fz1cGWdK — Calgary Police (@CalgaryPolice) June 22, 2013

Lasting impacts

The ten-year anniversary of the Calgary floods is June 20, 2023.

Tim Haney, who is a professor in Sociology at Mount Royal University, has conducted research on multiple different natural disasters as they have seemingly followed him everywhere he has gone.

“My partner and I lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and when we went through Hurricane Katrina that made me sort of interested in disasters. We’ve also kind of had this history of our personal lives being affected by disasters,” Haney said.

“Our wedding in Wisconsin was disrupted by a pretty powerful tornado and then our son was born during the 2013 flood here in Calgary and was a home birth because of the flood.”

As the Calgary flood ripped through the city, Haney quickly jumped on to researching the impacts of the flood shortly after the storm passed.

“With a team of students from MRU, we went out and surveyed people in all 26 neighborhoods, and asked them questions about, where did you go when you evacuated? When did you come back? What sort of damage did you come back to? What were your financial losses from the flood?” Haney said.

“You know, but also a couple of really broad questions about how going through the flood might have changed their views on the environment, their views on politics, how it made them think about where they were going to live next if they plan to, think about flood risks in the next place they decided to live, all these sorts of things.”

Building neighbourhood connections

One theme that stood out was the heightened sense of community and relationship building.

“A surprisingly high number of Calgarians said that they met new people through the floods and that they had then kept in contact and so on,” Haney said.

“The flood helped them meet their neighbours, but what was really interesting was that it was the situation of need that brought people together.”

Through an interview for Haney’s Paradise Found? The Emergence of Social Capital, Place Attachment, and Civic Engagement after Disaster one participant (whose name has been changed for the study) recounted how a friend in his neighborhood owned a piece of land and took multiple families in after the flooding.

“(We) all moved out to the acreage with the trailers and fifth-wheels and then they had like a little, I call it a refugee camp, so there’s that they stayed there for about three months, so they all chipped in and bought a trampoline and a big swimming pool (laughing), took turns babysitting the kids and you know and cooking dinner and all that kind of stuff,” Dave said in an interview conducted during Haney’s study.

Stayner’s community of Sunnyside had a similar sense of community building.

“The most amazing thing was the experience of community in the entire city in that immediate aftermath,” Stayner said.

“Once the floodwaters kind of receded, and the street was drying out, and we’re down there, my wife and I started to clean up and stuff and that first day we were doing that I just remember, suddenly random people are just showing up asking if they can help.

“Before we knew, we had like 15 or 20 people just helping clean out our basement you know everything that had just been saturated, you know old wooden shelving, stuff like that. They’re getting in there with us, helping, and people are coming by giving you food and drinks and offering anything. That sense of community rising together was just amazing.”

Finding a sense of normal

Many people found that sense of community in the wake of the floods, but the sense of positivity wasn’t enough to ignore the lingering impacts both within the community and in people’s personal lives.

Haney mentioned specifically the challenges of returning to normalcy.

“An example of that would be during normal times, you’re used to looking out your window and you see the same two kids walking to school together every morning and the 7-Eleven across the street is open and you see people coming and going and all these little signs tell you, OK, it’s a normal day and everything is OK,” Haney said

“When you come back after a disaster, all of that is disrupted, the kids are no longer there because their family is displaced and hasn’t been able to come back yet. Or the store is flooded, abandoned, closed so people aren’t coming and going.

He said what people in Calgary who returned to their homes in flooded neighbourhoods told them was that things didn’t feel right. It wasn’t that their sense of security was threatened, but things were just off, Haney said.

Haney mentioned when he moved to Alberta in 2009, he was told that there would be no disasters to research. Since Alberta has experienced the two costliest disasters in Canadian history.

The toll this takes can be psychologically difficult.

“It’s incredibly psychologically jarring, to be told to leave your home to not be able to come back to depend on sometimes emergency shelters or you know, staying in a hotel, not knowing if you have a place to come back to,” Haney said.

The Sunnyside community continues to honour the resilience of the community with their annual Neighbour Day festivities. They did so  again this year .

“We wanted to invite the city, again, just like they did so much for us,” Stayner said.

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• Case Studies

Policies and measures for reducing flood risk in the City of Calgary

Building flood resiliency is a top priority for the City of Calgary, following the extreme flooding event of 2013 that resulted in $6 billion in damages, including over $400 million to infrastructure. The City’s approach to reducing flood risk uses multiple lines of defence at the watershed, community and property levels. The City’s 2017 Flood Mitigation Measures Assessment Report focuses on increased protection in critical areas, such as the downtown core and neighbourhoods with high flood-risk. The plan is supported by a combination of barriers at existing reservoirs and protocols related to flood-control, and also depends on upstream reservoirs to provide a high level of flood protection.

Understanding and Assessing Impacts

In order to better understand the impacts of flooding in the Calgary area the IBI Group along with Golder Associates were tasked with creating a flood damage model for the City through the Flood Mitigation Options Assessment Summary. This model visually represented land which would be affected by floods ranging in size from those with a likelihood of occurring every 100 years (1:100) up to those that may occur sometime within the millennium (1:1000). While a wide range of flood sizes were considered, intentions were to address those up to a 1:200 occurrence probability. This model enabled a scenario analysis which considered flood mitigation options against various flood events. This analysis incorporated a robust cost-benefit analysis which was conducted by overlaying various hard engineering interventions onto models of a 1:200 flood scenario in the City of Calgary. Ultimately the cost-benefit analysis showed that neither hard engineering nor buyouts of land in high-risk areas alone could completely mitigate the costs of future damages. Buyouts were also seen as cost-prohibitive, further nullifying this option. The above-mentioned detailed analysis well exceeds current standards and aided in informing future flood mitigation planning and analysis.

Identifying Actions

Through the Flood Mitigation Options Assessment Summary, a combination of actions was ultimately identified using a sustainability assessment approach. This assessment, spearheaded by the City of Calgary, examined various scenarios which then integrated flood damage modelling information in order to better understand the damage reduction and cost/benefit implications of each scenario. The assessment also explored operational improvements and land use policy schemes. The sustainability assessment allowed for factors such as social well-being, economic well-being, environmental protection, and ease of implementation all to be considered. While the weightings of each factor’s sub-components differed, each of the four main sustainability assessment factors were considered of equal importance. The factors and their components were guided by existing city policy and developed partially through community engagement as well as with public and private sector expertise. The results of the assessment indicated that the single most preferred hard engineering option was that of upstream mitigation through reservoir introduction. This option was favoured thanks to the equitable protection it would provide and its unobtrusive (to city residents) nature. Overall, the summary recommends a scenario (scenario #8) which introduces reservoirs upstream of the Bow and Elbow Rivers, a number of community barriers around the downtown core, as well as less substantial barriers strategically placed throughout the city. While timelines for the implementation of these actions were not made explicit, as of 2021the Springbank Reservoir on the Elbow River awaits approval while the Bow River Reservoir is currently being studied and remains in the conceptual stage. This is due to the fact that these projects are considerably large and fall under Provincial jurisdiction. Conversely, many of the aforementioned community-level barrier projects are at different stages of implementation.

Implementation

Since the significant flooding of Southern Alberta in 2013 the City of Calgary along with the Province of Alberta have implemented a number of strategies to reduce damage from future floods. Some of these strategies include improvements to forecasting and emergency response, the introduction of community-level flood barriers, gate upgrades at Calgary’s Glenmore Dam, and a Provincial agreement with TransAlta (hydroelectricity provider). Many of the above-mentioned actions occurred relatively rapidly after the flooding event thanks to their low costs and ease of implementation. Exceptions to this characterization are built-infrastructure such as the Glenmore Dam upgrades (completed 2020) and community-level flood barriers (ongoing) which demand more time and funding to materialize. The Government of Alberta has been able to assist in Calgary’s adaptation efforts by extending an agreement with TransAlta to utilize their power generation infrastructure for flood prevention. Further, the Province contributed significant funds to the Glenmore Dam upgrades as well as to the creation of flood barriers. Other major aspects of Calgary’s plan constitute Provincial initiatives whose progress still rest firmly with Provincial authorities. Namely, two major reservoir projects on the Bow and Elbow Rivers which constitute a large portion of Calgary’s Flood Resilience Plan but which lie outside of its jurisdiction. The Elbow River reservoir is currently awaiting Provincial approval, while the Bow River reservoir remains in the feasibility stage. This is likely due in part to the high capital cost associated with the projects which top upwards of $1.4 Billion Canadian dollars

Outcomes and Monitoring Progress

To date, the City of Calgary has implemented hard engineering solutions such as improvements to the gate of the Glenmore Dam in the form of the 2.5 metre high steel gates as well as the introduction of flood barriers at various locations throughout the city. These interventions have been said to have reduced the potential average annual damages of future flood events by about 50% to date. The benefits of other steps that the city has taken such as improving forecasting and emergency response systems are less easily quantified. While initial reports by the Expert Management Panel on River Flood Mitigation suggested that appropriate flood level protection be periodically reassessed, the city currently remains in a multi-year implementation phase which includes continuous refinement of their understandings of flood risks, as well as the role of groundwater. Throughout the planning phase the importance of two factors in particular were made explicit by stakeholder groups. Firstly, there was a clear distaste for large, obtrusive and partially effective (groundwater flooding potential remains) flood barriers. Second, many stakeholders expressed their desire for infrastructure interventions which effectively reduced flood risk for their private property. These two pieces of information contributed to the focus on upstream reservoirs in the City’s Flood Resilience Plan. These reservoirs would likely also have benefits for communities situated downstream which may also experience flooding. In fact, the Springbank reservoir (Elbow River) will address 80% of the flooding on this river, a level of protection unattainable by barriers alone. Further, paired with ongoing TransAlta agreements, downtown barriers will protect against 1:200-year flood events.

There are a multitude of next steps associated with future flood prevention in the City of Calgary. Firstly, the aforementioned approval for the Elbow River reservoir must be made by the Province of Alberta as well as further advancement of the Bow River reservoir concept. While a particular location and design for the Elbow River reservoir seems to be favoured – known as Springbank Reservoir (SR1) – public hearings on the topic are set to begin in the spring of 2021, prior to Federal approval which is expected in the summer of the same year. Decisions to further study three competing designs for the Bow River reservoir must still be made. Next, the Province of Alberta are in the midst of ensuring that current agreements with the regional hydroelectricity provider (TransAlta) which allows for use of their infrastructure for flood prevention, is extended beyond 2021. Further, the city intends to consider changes to land use and building codes near the river which may restrict or prohibit uses in particular areas. Preliminary studies which address land use changes suggest that a cost/benefit analysis would be a useful tool to aid in guiding how this option may move forward. Additionally, the city is developing an education program for homeowners in order to better flood-proof their properties. Calgary has also noted that it intends to continue improving flood prevention through areas such as “forecasting, emergency response, citizen education and communication, and preparedness for citizens, businesses and city departments”.

Link to Full Case Study

Additional Resources

• Calgary’s Flood Resilience Plan and Projects (website)
• Developing Calgary’s Flood Resilience Plan
• Calgary’s River Flood Story
• Be prepared for flooding

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Community Flood Barriers - studies and reports

Bowness feasibility studies (2018-2020).

Studies were conducted over 18 months to explore the feasibility of a flood barrier from the early conceptual design. 

Please note:  Reports can be downloaded using Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer and Firefox, but not in the newest versions of Chrome.

River modelling

Prepared by: KCB Engineering

This study helped us predict how the Bow River behaves at the design flow rate of 1,230 m3/s. The results from the computer river model was used to:

The study results showed the optimal alignment to protect the greatest number of properties in Bowness was along the riverfront targeting two key low-lying areas on the north and south ends of Bow Crescent. These areas were identified to be the source of overland flooding in the community and that a flood barrier could effectively stop water from overflowing the riverbanks. The recommended barrier heights vary from 0.4 to 1.7 metres depending on the location on the property.

Results of the how the river influences groundwater and interacts with the stormwater system are detailed in the separate groundwater and stormwater studies.

Hydrotechnical Assessment Report  - December 2020

Groundwater studies

We follow a consistent design process for all flood mitigation projects. We conduct studies to understand the existing groundwater conditions and determine how they could change if a flood barrier is constructed.

What did we do?

Results and findings

What are the existing groundwater conditions in the area?

Groundwater conditions are similar to other riverside communities Bowness was built on a highly permeable aquifer, like downtown and Sunnyside. This means water can travel more easily in some of the geological layers under the ground surface. 

The groundwater flow changes direction during the year For most of the year, groundwater travels down from the Paskapoo slopes and out towards the river. Maintaining this unobstructed path for the groundwater to exit is important to prevent the groundwater table from rising.

During the spring high water season, the flow reverses direction and groundwater flows from the river into the soil. 

What is the effect on groundwater when overland river flow is blocked by a barrier?

Figure ES.4 Peak Water Table Reduction with Surface Barrier, 1:200 Attenuated Event 

Groundwater levels with and without a surface barrier in place are shown below:

Figure ES.2 Depth to Peak Water Table, no mitigation, 1:200 Attenuated Event 

Figure ES.3 Depth to Peak Water Table with Surface Barrier, 1:200 Attenuated Event 

Full Report and appendices

Due to large file sizes, pdf's may take a few minutes to download and is best viewed on desktop

3rd Party Review of Groundwater Study

The City hired an independent 3rd party reviewer for the geotechnical and hydrological studies in Bowness based on feedback from the community.  This review helps ensure the studies meet standards, are comprehensive and that their interpretation of the findings are consistent with those of Klohn Crippen Berger (KCB), who conducted the study. See their letters below for a summary of their review:

Recommendations

As with all riverside communities in Calgary, managing the risk of basement flooding can be best achieved through a combined approach – controlling the river flow through upstream reservoirs to keep groundwater levels low; community flood barriers to prevent community flooding; property-level flood protection to limit risk exposure.

When river flows cannot be maintained below basement levels, or when the water table rises due to heavy rainfall, an effective way to reduce basement flood risk is taking the appropriate steps at home.  This includes:

Stormwater Studies

Prepared by: Matrix Solutions

This study was used to determine the potential impacts a permanent overland flood barrier would have on existing drainage infrastructure. Using a comprehensive computer model, it allowed us to compare existing (no-barrier) conditions to a scenario with a riverfront flood barrier to determine how stormwater drainage changes can be managed.

The study results revealed that some modifications to the stormwater system in Bowness would be needed if a permanent overland flood barrier was built. The study identified which outfall gates would need to be closed during a flood event and what infrastructure (e.g. pumps) would be needed to manage drainage while the gates were closed. The study recommended using temporary pumps only deployed during emergency events in lieu of permanent infrastructure. The study also identified that some lots will require a change to their local drainage to ensure stormwater does not build up on their property with the barrier in place. Site-specific solutions would be explored further as part of a potential future phase of design.

During a flood, who is responsible for the closure of stormwater outfall gates?

During a flood, The City will follow its Emergency Response Plan which includes the closure of outfall gates. The Emergency Response Plan would also cover deployment of temporary pumps to ensure stormwater does not back up behind the barrier.

How was groundwater considered? How are sump pumps considered?

The groundwater infiltration into the storm system, whether through cracks in pipes and manholes, leaky pipe joints and connections, and weeper holes, is expected to be a small fraction (1-2%) of the potential flows in the storm pipes. For more information, please refer to Section 2.6 of the Stormwater Assessment and Mitigation Report.

Environmental Review

In this phase, the purpose of the environmental review was to get a baseline understanding of the environmental conditions in Bowness by building an inventory of what exists (e.g. amphibians, birds, vegetation, rare plants and wetlands, soils, fish and fish habitats). Independent biologists captured feedback provided by residents and also visited the area throughout various times in the year to observe and note the wildlife.

If the project were to proceed to the next phase, a full environmental impact assessment would be completed once an alignment was confirmed. This final assessment would provide information on potential impacts to existing habitat features, fish, wildlife and vegetation and how to mitigate them during construction.

Conceptual Studies (2013-2018)

These studies identified a flood barrier as an option to help mitigate overland flooding in Bowness. As work on  exploring the feasibility of a permanent flood barrier continues, information on propertiesand technical data will be gathered. Project limitations and options will also be identified.

Permanent Flood Barrier Protection Assessment

Prepared by: Associated Engineering

The City of Calgary requested a study into whether flood barriers would be an effective solution to reduce flood risk in our city. The Study used a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach to evaluate the social, environmental and economic costs and benefits, using a specific process built for this study. The costs and benefits assessed barrier protection at various heights for many communities. Information from this study was included in our city-wide Flood Mitigation Measures Assessment.

Please note:  Associated Engineering created conceptual designs for community-level flood barriers to help calculate rough costs and benefits, and to see if barriers in these general locations was technically feasible. It’s important to note that height, location on individual properties, and/or aesthetics of the concepts are not indicators or a foundation of the proposed community flood barriers.

Due to large file sizes, pdf's may take a few minutes to download and is best viewed on desktop.

Appendix A - Figures

Appendix B - Background data

Appendix C - Spill Line Figures

Appendix D - Barrier review

Appendix E - Groundwater figures

Basement Ex vs. High - April 13, 2018

Basement Ex vs. Prop - April 13, 2018

Surface Ex vs. High - April 13, 2018

Surface Ex vs. Prop - April 13, 2018

Appendix F - Groundwater results

Appendix G - Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Analysis Write-Ups

Appendix h - triple bottom line (tbl) analysis graphs and tables, appendix i - triple bottom line (tbl) benefit cost summaries, appendix j - refined designs, cost estimate.

Flood Mitigation Options Assessment

Prepared by: IBI Group and Golder Associates

After the 2013 flood, the Flood Expert Management Panel recommended a study to explore the impacts and benefits of mitigation measures beyond barriers to reduce flood risk in Calgary. This study looked at potential flood damages under different scenarios with different mitigation options in place. These options were combinations of reservoirs, flood barriers, stormwater improvements and emergency response measures.

The study compared the cost, benefits and social-environmental sustainability of each mitigation scenario. They were evaluated on social well-being, environmental protection, economic well-being and ease of implementation. The assessment criteria for each scenario was based on technical studies and expertise, international best practices and public engagement.

The recommended flood mitigation scenario included:

This combination of measures provided the greatest flood protection, was the most environmentally sustainable and provided the timeliest and equitable protection to flood-prone communities.

Please note:  Rough costs were compared to benefits for each mitigation scenario. As each individual project design progresses, the cost-benefit of each project will be refined and re-assessed. This will be done on an individual project level and within the context of how it contributes to flood resiliency for the city as a whole.

The cost-benefit is assessed using a triple-bottom-line approach that considers not only financial costs, but also social and environmental impacts and benefits.

Reports to Council

2019 flood resiliency and mitigation annual update (april 2020).

This report summarizes the status of various flood mitigation projects and provincial upstream mitigation in 2019.

Flood Mitigation Measures Assessment - Report to Council (April 2017)

This report is the recommended flood mitigation approach for Calgary. It is based on the technical studies listed below, expert advice, and public engagement. Council directed The City to execute the strategy outlined in the report. We continue to engage and work with communities as we explore and design flood mitigation projects in their neighbourhoods.

Other relevant studies

Calgary rivers morphology study.

Prepared by: Klohn Crippen Berger (December 2017)

This study explains how the Bow River, Elbow River, Fish Creek, Nose Creek and West Nose Creek were affected by the 2013 flood, how they have recovered since the flood, and how they are likely to evolve in the future.

Calgary Rivers Morphology - Appendices I - II

Calgary rivers morphology - appendices iii - viii.

This information has no legal status and cannot be used as an official interpretation of the various bylaws, codes and regulations currently in effect. The City of Calgary accepts no responsibility to persons relying solely on this information. Web pages are updated periodically. ​

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Calgary set to become 'case study' for experts as floods force officials to miss disaster preparedness conference

'Water is the least of your problems. The water will go away, and it could go away in the next two days. The problem is all of the silting that's in there'

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Of all the disruptions caused by the Calgary flood, one of the more ironic is that it forced several senior figures, from industry and government, to cancel their attendance at a major disaster preparedness conference in Toronto, as they were called into real-life action at home.

As Calgary lifts some of the evacuation orders and sets a course for recovery, the city “will be a case study” for experts on disaster preparedness and recovery, a field that aims to be “focused less on cause than on impact,” said Adrian Gordon, chair of the World Conference on Disaster Management, which started Sunday.

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Reaction is the key, no matter what has happened — fire, flood, famine, or worse — because “the first disaster that comes along is not going to be the one you planned for,” Mr. Gordon said.

“People almost never panic,” said Peter Rekers, a crisis communications consultant from Australia with experience in massive urban floods, including the 2010-2011 flooding in Queensland, including the capital Brisbane.

Calgary’s orderly evacuations have borne this out, he said, but if people do panic, Mr. Rekers said, it is usually because of mixed messages about the severity of the threat.

“Panic is if you stand there staring at it, going ‘Ohmigod, ohmigod, I don’t know what to do.’ The thing that causes panic is mixed messages,” he said. Audiences work best if you give them all the information now: good, bad and ugly.

“When they get back to downtown, they’re going to find out the truth,” he said. “They’ll make their own assessments at that point…. Preparing people for something worse, and actually finding out that it wasn’t that bad, is a lot better result than saying it’s all good, and then finding out it’s all bad.”

To illustrate, he recalled a mid-tier law firm with 40 staff in Brisbane that stored all their files in the basement and evacuated before the flood, expecting to return in a few days.

“Ten years worth of records lost, including their disaster management plan. That’s where they kept it [in the basement]. Three of the law firm’s partners houses were flooded. Within six months, that branch had lost over a million dollars’” he said.

In Calgary, Mr. Rekers said the acid test for that blunt honesty will be the message from city authorities on whether the iconic Stampede, scheduled for two weeks from now, will go ahead. Mayor Naheed Nenshi has said it will, though it may “look different” depending on the state of recovery. Mr. Rekers wondered whether that is even possible.

“My fear is that people are not thinking about the bigger picture,” he said. “Water is the least of your problems. The water will go away, and it could go away in the next two days. The problem is all of the silting that’s in there, so the drains are now full of silt. There’s going to be buildings that are possibly going to be demolished, or at least have substantial rebuilds, and we’re talking downtown hotels, and so on, where we want people who are coming to the Stampede to stay, so there’s not going to be accommodation for them.”

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City of Calgary enters state of local emergency in response to heavy rainfall

Mayor gondek stressed the declaration is a precautionary measure.

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• No evacuation orders expected as Calgary river water levels reach peak, officials say

The City of Calgary has announced a state of local emergency in response to heavy rainfall. 

The special order came into effect at 3:59 p.m. on Monday.

In a news conference, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the special order allows police and fire departments to go door-to-door in the event of an evacuation, gives the city's water services team access to property to protect critical infrastructure, and allows the city to quickly secure supplies if needed.

In a warning issued Monday morning by Environment Canada, the agency said prolonged and significant rainfall events will bring 75 to 125 mm of rain by Wednesday morning in the Calgary region. In some areas, rainfall totals of 150 mm or more are possible, the agency said.

Calgary saw 26.1 mm of rain on Monday. 

Gondek stressed that the declaration of the order has been made as a precautionary measure, and that rainfall projections and water levels remain lower than in 2013, when downtown and other parts of the city were flooded.

Chief Susan Henry with the Calgary Emergency Management Agency said any potential evacuations will depend on how weather conditions develop over the next couple of days. 

Bowness and Sunnyside, which border the Bow River, are the Calgary neighbourhoods most at risk of high flows, said Henry.

Areas most at risk of flooding

This map by the Calgary Emergency Management Agency shows the areas at most risk of flooding

She added that river conditions will continue to be monitored, with peak water flow on the Bow River expected Wednesday evening and the highest water levels expected in Calgary on Thursday.

Due to the construction of a temporary berm, a portion of Memorial Drive will be closed to traffic starting on Monday at midnight, between 10th Street N.W. and Edmonton Trail N.E.

Henry urged Calgarians to exercise caution as forecasts and river conditions will continue to change quickly.  

Assistant deputy chief Brian McAsey with the Calgary Fire Department said it is unsafe for Calgarians to be on either the Bow or Elbow rivers, or near riverbanks. 

"Right now, the water is extremely turbid, so [it's] not very clear, we can't see into it. It's also extremely swollen, [on] both those riverbanks. And so that means the riverbank is not a safe place for you."

Francois Bouchard with the city's water resources department said preparatory measures, such as lowering water levels in the Glenmore Reservoir, have been put in place since the city began tracking the weather system last week. 

Bouchard added that while both the Elbow and Bow rivers are expected to see higher flow levels, the Bow River poses a greater flood risk to the city. Current projections show more rainfall over its catchment area.

If Calgarians choose to sandbag their property, the city advises building a wall about 30 centimetres high and six metres long, which requires roughly 100 sandbags. Contact your local landscaping or home building supply company for sandbag material.

The city has also released a map showing areas most at risk of being impacted by flooding.

'Tense time' for Albertans

In a news conference in Edmonton on Monday, Lisa Jackson, executive director of environmental emergency management for Alberta Environment and Parks, said experts are crunching the data to figure out who could be affected and who is at risk across the province.

"We're watching a significant rain event come in. We've seen it on radar already, and it's starting to move into the eastern slopes," Jackson said.

She said a complicating factor is an above-average snowpack at higher elevations.

One area that Jackson said the province is watching carefully is upstream of High River. 

"We're just working with the communities to help understand what those impacts would be if it results in those levels," she said.

The Alberta River Forecast Centre issued a flood warning for an area of Foothills County late Monday. It includes the Highwood River from the Town of High River to the Bow River confluence.

Environment and Parks has also set up its department co-ordination centre to help manage the situation as it develops.

"I know this is a tense time for many Albertans — this is especially true for communities that were at the centre of the devastating 2013 floods," Jason Nixon, minister of environment and parks, told reporters Monday.

"While I realize that having a flood warning or a flood watch in place will be especially difficult for folks in Calgary, High River, Canmore and other communities flooded in 2013, please know that Alberta is better prepared than ever for high river events."

He said that since 2020, Alberta has added more than 1,500 kilometres of new and updated flood mapping, which is more than the previous 30 years combined. 

Nixon said he's been speaking with civic leaders in Sundre, located about 110 kilometres northwest of Calgary, and Mountain View County, as well as other rural municipal leaders. Provincial officials have also been talking to the City of Calgary and municipal associations.

"While municipal governments typically respond to flooding and other local emergencies through the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, the Government of Alberta stands ready to assist with the response, if needed," Nixon said.

He encouraged Albertans to co-operate with local officials should there be a need to evacuate any areas in the province. He also recommended people download the province's river app and Alberta's emergency alert app to keep informed on developments.

"A theme throughout every emergency Alberta has ever faced is this: We are in it together. We will work together. We are resilient people and we stand by our neighbours."

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On Monday afternoon, the Town of Canmore, located about 100 kilometres west of Calgary, said it has activated its emergency co-ordination centre and is monitoring flow levels in Cougar Creek and the Bow River. 

It has also prepared sandbags for flood protection, which are available for pickup at the public works building parking lot, located at 100 Glacier Drive.

A flood warning issued by Alberta Environment for the Bow River in the Town of Banff was downgraded to a flood watch on Monday afternoon, reflecting lower than forecasted rainfall for the area. Emergency personnel have deployed temporary dams near Birch Avenue and the Banff Recreation Grounds. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kylee is a reporter/editor with CBC Calgary. You can reach her at [email protected]

With files from Tony Seskus

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Preprint  

• Preprint nhess-2024-51

Demonstrating the use of UNSEEN climate data for hydrological applications: case studies for extreme floods and droughts in England

Abstract. Meteorological and hydrological hazards present challenges to people and ecosystems worldwide, but the limited length of observational data means that the possible extreme range is not fully understood. Here, a large ensemble of climate model data is combined with a simple grid-based hydrological model, to assess unprecedented but plausible hydrological extremes in the current climate across England. Two case studies are selected—dry (Summer 2022) and wet (Autumn 2023)—with the hydrological model initialised from known conditions then run forward for several months using the large climate ensemble. The modelling chain provides a large set of plausible events including extremes outside the range from use of observed data, with the lowest flows around 28 % lower on average for the Summer 2022 drought study and the highest flows around 42 % higher on average for the Autumn 2023 flood study. The temporal evolution and spatial dependence of extremes is investigated, including the potential time-scale of recovery of flows to normal and the chance of persistent extremes. Being able to plan for such events could help improve the resilience of water supply systems to drought, and improve flood risk management and incident response.

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More From Forbes

Local empowerment: standing out in a sea of sameness when going global.

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Thai Son Nguyen has spent the last 18 years building a world-class digital transformation and e-commerce service provider through SmartOSC.

Local or global? Why not both?

Because of how connected our world is, virtually any e-commerce company can start doing business wherever it wants in some capacity. Whether you’re a marketplace, enablement service or agency, it’s possible to find and reach clients or customers anywhere.

While having this flexibility is positive in some ways, it does present enterprises that want to operate across various markets with several challenges. Perhaps the biggest is finding the balance between adapting a brand to local contexts while still maintaining consistency across markets.

Finding A Balance

Companies that treat every new market as the same as the last one they entered will likely fail to properly connect with their target audience. Equally, firms that are willing to compromise on their core principles to do business in a new locale risk losing whatever brand value they have accumulated.

Balance and the right mix, then, is key. As Siew Ting Foo, the global head of brand and insights at HP, stated during an interview for my company's podcast, "Great brands are built on consistency." She describes a magic "rooted in the right compounding, cultural competition and category insight that can take the business to a different level."

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The answer, in my experience, to obtaining this magic or balance is local empowerment.

Local Empowerment And Its Importance

Local empowerment is one of those great phrases that just means what it says: empowering local actors.

In the case of an e-commerce company seeking to expand to new markets, it means empowering your team(s) in the market to make the decisions necessary for the business to flourish.

This doesn’t mean a brand’s identity can be changed in a haphazard nature, of course. Your brand must remain strong while the new unit must also have the power to provide an offering that will appeal to a local market. When you build credibility with those who are local to an area, it can also help you negotiate regulations and regional customs.

Case Study: An American Company In Vietnam

What does this mean in practice? Let’s give some examples using Vietnam. Let’s pretend an American software company that is well-known for its integrity is setting up shop in the country.

Perhaps the American software company is used to gaining leads via cold calling, but if the firm were to replicate this in Vietnam, the results would likely be poor. That’s because the importance of having a common acquaintance or third party introduce two sides of a business arrangement is vitally important in Vietnamese culture. Yes, business everywhere runs on personal relationships, but it’s emphasized in Vietnam, so our fictional firm would be well-advised to adapt to this local practice.

Equally, gift-giving is a big part of Vietnamese business culture between business associates of all stripes. Sometimes, these gifts include cash in an envelope, which would be considered bribery back in the U.S. In this case, the representatives of our fictional enterprise should not compromise a core brand value (integrity) by accepting what may be construed as bribery back home.

Sea Of Sameness

Doing local empowerment correctly can help businesses stand out in what is otherwise a "sea of sameness." That sea is a competitive place, by the way.

I’ve learned a thing or two about doing this through operating my company, which is active in 11 countries. While your core brand should shine through everywhere, each office will have to adapt to its market.

For example, what may work for a salesperson operating in the Japanese market won’t work in the Australian, so they shouldn't be expected to use the same tactics.

A mindset of local empowerment helps align with the market's needs while ensuring cost-effectiveness and speed. It makes business sense and provides employees with a greater sense of ownership, which is essential for expansion. After all, a CEO can’t be everywhere at once.

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?

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