After the presentation by Carly Benson on November 16, 2017, Terry Slack asked a question about plans for dike building in the Southlands area.
Response from City of Vancouver:
Carly mentioned that after her presentation the DEEP group had a number of questions related to flooding and Sea Level Rise around the Southlands area. The team in sustainability is going to be doing community engagement on this with communities along the Fraser River (including Southlands) in early 2018, and I have asked them to make sure that your group is included in this. This process will be a great opportunity to learn more about flooding in Vancouver, the City’s response, ask more detailed questions, and provide input.
In the meantime, they have provided some condensed information specific to the Southlands/Fraser River area for me to share with you.
Specifically for the Fraser River:
- In 2018 the City will kick off the Fraser River Flood Management Plan Phase I: Stakeholder Engagement project
- The project will gather input on stakeholder values, guiding principles, and preferred attributes for flood management strategies along the Fraser River floodplain.
- Phase 1 will focus on education, awareness building, values, concerns, and an exploration of flood management concepts.
- Outcomes of Phase 1 will help develop criteria based on stakeholder input that can be used in the City’s assessment of potential flood management strategies and selection of a preferred approach or suite of approaches to take to Council.
- The City will be working with the Musqueam on the topic of climate change, flooding and exploring flood management concepts. To date the Musqueam have not completed technical studies on the impacts of flooding and sea level rise in their community.
- There are no functioning dikes in the City of Vancouver. There is a “dike-like” structure in the Southlands that was built on private property but was never registered as a dike. It is not owned by the City of Vancouver. It does not perform the functions of a dike.
- Learn more: http://vancouver.ca/green-vancouver/sea-level-rise.aspx