SRD Protective services Coordinator Shaun Koopman gave an update on the progress of a grant to access the danger of sea level rise on Cortes and Quadra Islands.
“We will find out if we get that around the end of May,” he said.
Lidar data is a key element of flood mapping, and there isn’t any available for Cortes Island right now.
Koopman explained, “So about $40,000 would be spent getting Lidar data for Cortes. Another $40,000 to $50,000 would be spent analyzing the Lidar data for Cortes and Quadra and developing a map that shows sea level rise over time.”
The big ticket items of that grant would be having a consultant look at the vulnerability to storm surge, or waves coming in.
“One of the biggest we would want to take away from this process would be shelf ready recommendations on what the Regional District could do to mitigate the impacts of coastal flooding, whether that be storm surge or sea level rise on those islands, explained Koopman.
- Is a foreshore embankment needed?
- What about a sea break?
- Does the ecosystem need to be restored? (example: would planting $20,000 worth of trees protect the foreshore from erosion?)
“We could quickly take the recommendations to a further stream of funding, with community consultation of course – we’re not skipping that.” added Koopman.
Links of Interest:
- (NOAA) is sea level rising?
- (UVic) Living with Water: Rethinking coastal adaptation to climate change
- (UBC News) Sea Level Rise
- (European Environment Information) Global and European sea level rise
- (CBC) B.C. lacks plans for rising seas and flooding, coastal adaptation researcher says
- (City of Vancouver) Sea Level Rise
- (City of Campbell River) Sea Level Rise – FAQs
- (City of Campbell River) Sea Level Rise – Background
- (Cortes Currents) articles about Sea Level Rise in Campbell River
- (Cortes Currents) articles about sea level rise on Cortes Island
- (Cortes Currents) articles about sea level rise on Quadra Island
Top photo credit: Catching the light between the waves as they roll in by Peter Hickson via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)
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