SRRCD Flood and Drought Adaptation Plan

The Rural Municipality of Hanover in partnership with the Seine Rat river Conservation District (SRRCD) proposes a flood and drought adaptation plan for sustainable water management covering the Seine-Rat River watershed region.The purpose of the project is to develop the economic case for large scale investment in natural infrastructure on the agricultural landscape as a key adaptation to the elevated risk of both flood and drought, helping provincial and municipal governments prioritize and invest in green infrastructure that provides a beneficial cost-benefit ratio. A new reference hydrology model will be developed to design new structures taking into account potential climate change extremes. Using the model, the plan will identify the size, number and location of potential multi-functional storage sites in the Seine-Rat River watershed area and build the investment case based on implementation costs, and various project benefits including climate risk (flood/drought) reduction, irrigation potential, water quality and habitat benefits.The climate profile component will develop two regional climate profiles, one for the past (1950 to 1980) and one for more recent years (1990 to the present) by using weather data from Environment Canada weather stations closest to the municipalities. By using global circulation models and regional/local data records, the climate predictions will look at how weather might change during the next 50 to 80 years, what the impacts will be on the communities as well as potential vulnerabilities. The proposed study also follows in the wake of the recommendations of the Manitoba Climate and Green Plan and the Roseau River Study by building the investment case for multifunctional storage in the Assiniboine River Basin using leading-edge geospatial and hydrological analysis and best-in-class climate risk analytics for investment planning.A future potential follow-up to this plan will be to develop a feasibility study for specific locations within the conservation district, conduct a feasibility study for the development of naturalized wetland stormwater retention facilities, and invest in feasibility, planning and engineering studies for a natural sewage treatment system for the Municipality. This future Manitoba case study will apply the Prairie Climate Atlas data to demonstrate full climate risk analytics consistent with emerging best practices for climate resilient infrastructure investment planning.