In the nearly two years since the 2013 floods in Alberta, many mitigation options for the province’s flood-prone areas have been identified, studied, and implemented by the Government of Alberta (GoA), municipalities, non-government organizations, and others. 

In the fall of 2014 the GoA announced that it wanted to look more closely at the approach taken by the Netherlands to manage flooding in the Rhine River branches – the Room for the River program. A pilot project was undertaken in the Bow River Basin in late 2014 to consider the extent the Room for the River principles could be adapted and applied to the Bow and Elbow rivers. Building on the Bow Basin pilot, a second initiative was carried out in spring 2015 in the Red Deer River Basin to apply the measures and the learnings from the Bow Pilot to reduce vulnerability of people and infrastructure and improve the overall quality of the river. 

“Red deer river drumheller looking south” by davebloggs007 is licenced under CC BY 2.0.

The report below was submitted to GoA on June 4^th, 2015 for their review and consideration. It includes an overview of the project and the resulting advice to GoA. Many organizations and individuals contributed to this project. 

In this continuing spirit of collaboration, the report is being broadly shared and further comments are welcomed. Please read the report and feel free to share it with others. If you would like to offer public comment please do so in the comments box below, to offer private comment please do so via email . The WaterPortal will ensure your comments or suggestions are communicated to the authors and recipients of the report. Comments and feedback will be accepted until June 30^th.

Click here to download Room for the River in the Red Deer River Basin: Advice to the Government of Alberta.