Oyster River/Saratoga Beach Managing the Flood Risk: Vulnerability and Exposure Dialogue

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1 Oyster River/Saratoga Beach Thank-you for your interest in attending our interactive stakeholder dialogue for the Oyster River/Saratoga Beach Flood Risk Assessment on Tuesday, January 16 th, Attached you will find: an agenda, and an information brief with a description of the project background, objectives and the purpose of the Exposure Workshop. We are looking forward to seeing you there, for an informative, interactive, engaging and fun afternoon. We hope you will come prepared to share your experiences and interests in flood in your community. Sincerely, Tamsin Lyle, Principal, Ebbwater Consulting

2 Agenda Oyster River/Saratoga Beach Tuesday, January 16, :00pm-4:00pm Oyster River Fire Hall, 2241 Catherwood Rd, Black Creek, BC V9J 1J4 Approx. Time Activity 13:00 13:15 Introductions Activity led by Ebbwater 13:15 13:45 Flood Management & Risk Assessment 101 Ebbwater presentation 13:45 14:00 Oyster River Project Objectives and Progress Ebbwater presentation 14:00 14:15 Flood Impacts and Exposure Ebbwater presentation 14:15 14:30 Break 14:30 14:50 Flood Stories Activity led by Ebbwater 14:50 15:20 Map Exercise Activity led by Ebbwater 15:20 15:45 What s Next? 15:45 16:00 Closing & Questions All Ebbwater/CVRD presentation

3 Information Brief Oyster River / Saratoga Beach Flood Risk Assessment Background Floods matter; they matter a lot. People whose homes are inundated or damaged will remember for the rest of their lives; landscapes are changed forever; regional and national economies suffer. Flooding continues to pose a risk to Canada s economic vitality, infrastructure, environment, and citizens. In the wake of the Alberta and Ontario floods of 2013, the federal government established the National Disaster Mitigation Plan (NDMP) in April The program has several priorities, including providing support to provinces to identify and mitigate high-risk flood areas and to collect disaster risk information. Flooding continues to pose a risk to Canada s economic vitality, infrastructure, environment, and citizens. The residents of the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD) and the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) are no stranger to this, with flooding events such as in The stunning landscape of mountains, rivers and ocean surrounding the CVRD and SRD also exposes the communities to high river flows, storm surges and a rising sea level. The Oyster River and Saratoga Beach region is particularly prone to flooding, with its location nestled between river and ocean. Part of the community is located within the floodplain, exposing people, buildings, economy and infrastructure to floods (Figure 1). Figure 1: The Oyster River / Saratoga Beach Flood Hazard Map, Multiple Flood Scenarios

4 Project Objective Given that we use our floodplains and other natural hazard areas for a range of commercial, social, economic and environmental purposes, we need to acknowledge and plan for natural hazards in a way that improves the resilience of our built form and encourages safety and wellbeing for our communities. The CVRD has obtained Stream 1 funding from the federal NDMP program to complete a risk assessment for their community. This funding allows for a relatively high level risk assessment, with more detailed risk assessments completed under future Stream 2 funding; therefore, the current risk assessment will meet the requirements of the NDMP Risk Assessment Information Template (RAIT). The RAIT is a high-level assessment designed to be used as a tool for improved understanding of risk and prioritizing future resources. The risk assessment currently underway will allow the CVRD to: inform future flood mitigation efforts (policy and other measures), help with emergency planning, look specifically at potential threats to potable water, and be used to inform the public and other stakeholders of the present-day and future risk from riverine and coastal flooding. Workshop Objective To support the development of the risk assessment, the project team needs to understand what in the community is exposed to present-day and future flood hazard. Effectively to understand: What does the CVRD/SRD care about on the floodplain? Every community is different, from differing infrastructure to differing values, and Ebbwater seeks to understand what is important to the people of this community. Ebbwater likes to engage with the stakeholders and initiate interactive discussions to identify the key assets at risk in the riverine and coastal floodplains through a stakeholder workshop. This workshop will bring together stakeholders from across the community to consider the nature of the flood risk in the Oyster River/Saratoga Beach area and together develop our understanding of the impacts and overlapping values at play in flood management. This will directly inform the project in, and build capacity as a community to enhance resilience to the flood risk. Specifically, through this workshop we will: Build a shared understanding of flood hazard in the Oyster River/Saratoga Beach

5 Learn from the community about the specific assets and values that are susceptible to flooding. Outcomes: Ebbwater hopes to come away from this workshop with enough information to develop/update a comprehensive GIS database of assets in the floodplains of the CVRD. This, along with information already provided by the CVRD and SRD, will be used to develop Flood Risk mapping and assessments. These will be used to both support future applications to the NDMP and BC DMP programs, and will provide a solid base from which future flood mitigation planning can be developed.