Ice jam flood hazard assessment and mapping of the Peace River at the Town of Peace River

Lindenschmidt, Karl-Erich; Das, Apurba; Rokaya, Prabin; Chun, Kwok; Chu, Thuan

Abstract

Efforts are underway in Canada to develop, update and extend flood risk assessments and mapping for river sections prone to flooding. However, most of these previous works are limited to the open-water case. Very little has been done to include flooding related to the formation and breakup of ice cover on rivers, which can lead to ice jamming and subsequent flooding. River ice jams can cause high water levels that lead to severe flood events which can cause infrastructure damages, loss of human lives and adverse impacts on aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, extending flood risk mapping to include ice jam flooding would provide more accurate flood risk assessments for policy-makers and stakeholders to make pressing flood risk management decisions. The specific objectives of this research are (i) to use river ice modelling tools for ice-jam flood frequency analysis and (ii) to map flood extents of various ice jam flood water levels to assess the flood hazard. For developing effective flood mitigation and prevention strategies, this project will provide a novel approach incorporating ice jam modelling into flood hazard and risk assessment for a better understanding of the ice jam flooding risk to property and human life. The Peace River at the Town of Peace River is presented as a test case.

Citation

Lindenschmidt, K., Das, A., Rokaya, P., Chun, K., & Chu, T. (2015). Ice jam flood hazard assessment and mapping of the Peace River at the Town of Peace River. In 18th Workshop on the Hydraulics of Ice Covered Rivers (18-21)

• Conference Name: CGU HS Committee on River Ice Processes and the Environment 18th Workshop on the Hydraulics of Ice Covered Rivers
• Conference Location: Quebec
• Start Date: Aug 18, 2015
• End Date: Sep 20, 2015
• Acceptance Date: Jun 5, 2015
• Publication Date: 2015
• Deposit Date: Feb 25, 2022
• Pages: 18-21
• Book Title: 18th Workshop on the Hydraulics of Ice Covered Rivers
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/8545957
• Publisher URL: http://www.cripe.ca/docs/proceedings/18/23_Lindenschmidt_et_al_2015.pdf