Planning for Floods in the Lower Fraser Basin, British Columbia: Toward an Integrated Approach‪?‬

Abstract The potential for flood losses grew rapidly during the last half of the 20th century in the lower Fraser Valley and estuary where the bulk of British Columbia's population, infrastructure, and flood-control structures are concentrated. During this time, a complex array of federal and provincial specialists were engaged in rational, top-down, flood planning. The opportunity to create a balanced approach based on an integrated mix of structural and nonstructural measures was abandoned in the mid-1990s. Both federal and provincial governments slashed their professional capability in water management and flood control. The legacy was a costly system of dikes, financial disaster assistance and rapid encroachment on the floodplain. Most effort and funds were directed to compensation through flood loss programs run by well organized federal and provincial emergency measures organizations. This sequence of events was caused by a variety of institutional failures over more than 50 years. In particular, a forum was not available in which all levels of government and interested stakeholders could debate the merits of flood-control policy options. In 1992, the Fraser Basin Management Program put flooding on the public agenda and this work continues as a major interest of its successor, the Fraser Basin Council. The council deserves continuing support in developing a sustainable flood hazard management strategy for the Fraser Basin that may have application throughout the province.