Red River Basin LiDAR Survey - South Basin

The Town of Morris will complete a plan to determine how more accurate and updated LiDAR data, including bathymetric surveys, will help reduce the risk of ice-induced flooding in communities along the Red River’s South Basin. Between Emerson and Winnipeg, the Red River flows through a rich agricultural area in southern Manitoba, where is joined by the Roseau River, and passes through St. Jean Baptiste, Morris, Ste. Agathe and St. Adolphe. It then flows through the urban environment of Winnipeg, where it is joined by the Assiniboine River — the Red’s largest tributary — before returning to an agricultural region and flowing through Lockport and Selkirk on its way to Lake Winnipeg where it drains. There has been significant population growth and development in the region of the Red River Basin in Manitoba over the past 10 years. Municipalities are seeing significant changes to municipal infrastructure including housing developments, roads, flood protection structures, and drainage over short periods of time, highlighting the importance of refreshing data like LiDAR on a frequent, regular basis. During that same period of time, the geophysical layout of the communities has changed and expanded drastically. As a result of frequent and sometimes catastrophic flooding caused by extremely high water levels or ice jams on the Red River, municipalities, towns as well as the cities of Winnipeg and Selkirk have seen significant alterations to the banks along the river. Recurring large-scale floods/high water events since the late 1990s have caused substantial bank erosion, causing concern for safety, property, future development, and present flood protection. While past LiDAR information was collected along the Red River banks, the majority of the work was done in 2002, before several damaging floods occurred, including the ones in 2009 and 2011. Flooding north of the City of Winnipeg has been a considerable challenge for the local municipalities and residents. Land has been lost to flood erosion and properties that have suffered through repeated flooding episodes have been bought out or expropriated. Flooding has had an important impact on municipal infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, thus requiring provincial and federal DFAA claims to be submitted in order to replace the damaged structures. While permanent dikes and flood prevention structures have been built, flooding due to ice jams remains an annual concern for the area. The project will have two broad objectives:1) The Acquisition of LiDAR data that will ultimately enable municipalities to move forward with a long-term planning agenda and develop a plan based on the information that will have been processed and stored in a 'shared data repository'.2) The development of a climate change adaptation plan using LiDAR data and other climate adaptation tools.