Flood Adaptation Near Vancouver: A Regional Adaptation Collaborative

While the province provides guidelines and tools for flood risk management, it is local governments’ responsibility to delineate their own flood vulnerability, assess their risk, and integrate these with planning policies to implement flood protection actions.  However, barriers such as the lack of regionally specific climate data and public perceptions about adaptation options mean that local governments must address the need for adaptation planning within a context of scientific uncertainty, while building public support for flood-related climate policy and action. The Delta Regional Adaptation Collaborative (RAC) is a partnership between the University of British Columbia's Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning (CALP) and the Corporation of Delta that has worked to identify, model, visualize and evaluate potential flood impacts and adaptation options for the Corporation of Delta.  CALP has produced a set of 2D and 3D visualizations based on local hydrological modeling for sea level rise and storm surge dike breaches, as well visualizations and indicators for future scenarios ranging from “Reinforce and Reclaim” to “Managed Retreat”.  The visual materials are being used with staff and a citizens’ Working Group to measure the performance of, and assess the policy implications and social acceptability of the various adaptation strategies. The goal is to provide the Corporation of Delta with a set of policy recommendations for a range of hard and soft approaches, and a set of visuals to use for community engagement to build support for adaptation planning. This project is funded as part of the national RAC program by Natural Resources Canada.