Public Engagements in Forward-Looking Recovery Efforts Following the 2013 Floods in High River and Calgary, Canada

Bogdan, Eva; Bennett, A.; Yumagulova, Lilia

doi:10.4324/9781315534213-4

Cited by 2 publications

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“…In December 2013, the Alberta government enacted Bill 27 to amend the MGA, thereby restricting development in floodways to ensure rebuilding would occur in ways that would limit future flood risk. Stakeholder engagement was held in May and October 2014 (Alberta Municipal Affairs 2017), and the process has stalled since then (Bogdan, Bennett, and Yumagulova 2018). To date, the Floodway Development Regulation pertaining to the Act has not been promulgated and, as such, municipalities still retain building decisions on their floodplains (Alberta Municipal Affairs 2017).…”

Section: Situation 1: Lack Of Legislative Changes To Reduce Flood Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling the Social Construction of a Flooding Disaster: A Threaded Situation Analysis Approach

Bogdan

Caine

Beckie

2020

International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters

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Studies of, and solutions to, flooding have tended to focus on scientific and technical approaches to what is viewed as a “natural” disaster. A social constructivist perspective, on the other hand, argues that disasters, such as flooding, are a consequence of decisions and activities that impact nature; therefore, understanding and changing social practices is critical to reducing risk. We conducted a case study of the social construction of flooding in the Town of High River, the community most impacted by the 2013 floods in the province of Alberta, Canada. We examine three situations that exacerbated High River's vulnerability to flooding: (a) lack of legislative changes (b) insufficient updating of flood hazard maps, and (c) absence of flood risk notification on land titles. We analyze these situations through the recently developed threaded situation analysis (TSA) approach, demonstrating that it allows for a more comprehensive analysis than similar analytical frameworks. As part of this analysis we examine why certain social practices languish or are suppressed while others become dominant and capture actors’ willful attempts to influence practices. Although numerous scholars have critiqued centralized (top-down) approaches to flood risk governance (FRG), our article contributes to the disaster scholarship by unraveling the social construction of the 2013 Alberta flooding disaster and providing evidence of how decentralized (bottom-up) practices can impede changes that are critical for reducing flooding vulnerability.

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Section: Situation 1: Lack Of Legislative Changes To Reduce Flood Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling the Social Construction of a Flooding Disaster: A Threaded Situation Analysis Approach

Bogdan

Caine

Beckie

2020

International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters

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“…In the last decade, major flood events across Canada have caused heavy damage to infrastructure and homes and have cost the lives of Canadians. In 2013, a flood in Calgary caused 6 billion dollars in damages to the city and killed five people (Bogdan et al 2018). Over in Eastern Canada, a wide-set flooding event in April of 2019 caused over 15,000 residences from across Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick to be flooded; the water levels from this flooding event had broken Quebec records, previously held by the 2017 flood (Lowrie 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

GIS derived synthetic rating curves and HAND model to support on-the-fly flood mapping

2021

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A timely and cost-effective method of creating inundation maps could assist first responders in allocating resources and personnel in the event of a flood or in preparation of a future disaster. The Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) model could be implemented into an on-the-fly flood mapping application for a Canada-wide service. The HAND model requires water level (m) data inputs while many sources of hydrological data in Canada only provide discharge (m3/sec) data. Synthetic rating curves (SRCs), created using river geometry/characteristics and the Manning’s formula, could be utilized to provide an approximate water level given a discharge input. A challenge with creating SRCs includes representing how multiple different land covers will slow impact flow due to texture and bulky features (i.e., smooth asphalt versus rocky river channel); this relates to the roughness coefficient (n). In our study, two methods of representing multiple n values were experimented with (a weighted method and a minimum-median method) and were compared to using a fixed n method. A custom ArcGIS tool, Canadian Estimator of Ratings Curves using HAND and Discharge (CERC-HAND-D), was developed to create SRCs using all three methods. Control data were sourced from gauge stations across Canada in the form of rating curves. Results indicate that in areas with medium to medium–high river gradients (S > 0.002 m/m) or with river reaches under 5 km, the CERC-HAND-D tool creates more accurate SRCs (NRMSE = 3.7–8.8%, Percent Bias = −7.8%—9.4%), with the minimum-median method being the preferred n method.

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Public Engagements in Forward-Looking Recovery Efforts Following the 2013 Floods in High River and Calgary, Canada

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Unraveling the Social Construction of a Flooding Disaster: A Threaded Situation Analysis Approach

Unraveling the Social Construction of a Flooding Disaster: A Threaded Situation Analysis Approach

GIS derived synthetic rating curves and HAND model to support on-the-fly flood mapping

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