Red River Basin LiDAR Survey - North Basin

The City of Winnipeg 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 north of the City of Winnipeg. There has been significant population growth and development in the northern region of the Red River Basin in Manitoba over the past 10 years. Several municipalities in the area have seen substantial population growth of nearly 10% since 2011. These 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. In addition to river bank erosion, municipalities and lakeside communities along Lake Winnipeg are also seeing significant shoreline losses due to increased lake levels and damaging storms. Areas along the south basin of Lake Winnipeg, particularly down towards the Netley-Libau Marsh area, have been severely damaged over the past 10 years and are in danger of being lost as functioning ecosystems if action is not taken soon. Netley-Libau Marsh ranks among the largest coastal wetlands in North America and is facing destruction. New LiDAR information will provide details on the current state of the marsh, and where riverbanks and shorelines need to be protected or restructured before they are lost forever. Restoring and maintaining the Netley-Libau Marsh will also have a significant impact on nutrient reduction in Lake Winnipeg.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.