Room for the river report moves focus beyond big infrastructure

Photo: An elevated view of the flooding at Bow River gave onlookers a view next to the downtown core, in Calgary, Alberta in June 2013.
DAVE BUSTON / AFP/Getty Images

Room for the river report moves focus beyond big infrastructure

Colette Derworiz, Calgary Herald, Jan 12, 2014

Giving the province’s rivers more room to grow by revisiting property buyouts, preventing future floodplain development and widening riverbanks is an effective way to both mitigate future floods and manage watersheds, according to a new report.

The study, which was submitted to the province in late December, involved input from water managers, watershed groups, municipalities, environmental groups, experts and the interested public.

It examined an approach called Room for the River — used in the Netherlands as an effective way to manage high water levels along its rivers by giving them more room — after former environment minister Robin Campbell visited Holland and asked for a report on whether similar concepts could work in Alberta.

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