Existing methods of evaluating the hazard posed by moraine-dammed lakes are unsystematic, subjective, and depend on the expertise and biases of the geoscientist. In this paper, we provide a framework for making objective preliminary assessments of outburst flood hazard in southwestern British Columbia. Our procedure relies on remote sensing methods and requires only limited knowledge of glacial processes so that evaluations of outburst flood hazard can be incorporated into routine hazard assessments of glaciated regions. We describe objective approaches, which incorporate existing empirical relations applicable to the study region, for estimating outburst peak discharge, maximum volume, maximum travel distance, maximum area of inundation, and probability. Outburst flood hazard is greatest for moderately large lakes that are impounded by large, narrow, ice-free moraine dams composed of sedimentary rock debris and drain into steep, sediment-filled gullies above major river valleys. We demonstrate the application of the procedure using three case studies and show that flood hazard varies, especially with major changes in lake level. Our assessment scheme yields reproducible results and enables engineers and geoscientists to prioritize potentially hazardous lakes for more detailed field investigation. O'Connor et al. 2001). Outburst floods from moraine-dammed lakes can be particularly destructive because large volumes of water are released over a short period, downstream valleys are commonly steep and locally V-shaped, large volumes of sediment are available for entrainment from, and downstream of, the dam, and most failures occur with little or no warning and thus are unexpected.Moraine dam failures in British Columbia have caused only minor damage (e.g., Blown and Church 1985), but the likelihood that people will be impacted by these events will increase as glaciated regions in the province are further developed and settled. Mining and forestry operations, for example, commonly involve networks of access roads, which may be damaged by outburst floods. Numerous run-of-the-river hydroelectric facilities have recently been constructed on glacier-fed streams in British Columbia, in some cases with only cursory hazard assessments. Outdoor tourism companies are expanding their operations in British Columbia's rugged mountain landscapes.Fortunately, outburst flood hazard can be reduced and even eliminated through mitigation measures. Engineers and geoscientists have successfully stabilized moraine dams in the Himalayas (Richardson and Reynolds 2000), Andes (Lliboutry et al. 1977), and Swiss Alps (Haeberli et al. 2001) by armouring their surfaces with concrete and blocky fill, by constructing concrete trenches across the crest of the moraine dams, and by draining water out of lakes to increase freeboard, thus decreasing the possibility that displacement waves will overtop and incise the dams. Mitigation, however, is time-consuming, costly, and sometimes unsafe (Lliboutry et al. 1977), and it is not possible to prevent th...
