The Town of Canmore is looking to the Bow River as the next body of water to examine in detail for emergency preparedness efforts.
Residents may have recently noticed drones flying over the river and the berms that align it through the community.
Manager of engineering Andy Esarte explained to council on Tuesday (May 13) the drones were part of work by consultant BGC Engineering to develop a high level hydraulic model of the river.
Esarte said in the short term the work will help the Town prepare for emergency response in the event of high river levels or flooding. In the long term, he said the Town plans to use the model to work with the provincial government to determine what, if any, future work is needed on the dykes along the river.
“The drone, when it flew, took a surface image with LIDAR,” Esarte said, adding LIDAR (light detection and ranging) is a remote sensing laser technology that creates a high-resolution map. “With fairly good precision it creates a model of the surface, under the water and surrounding topography and you can use that in a simulation to model the flow of water.”
During two inspections of the dyke system, Esarte said administration was able to point out areas of concern during last year’s high water levels in the river to provincial officials.
“They are satisfied with the dykes and the condition they are in, but there are a couple of places to keep an eye on,” he said.
Mitigation along the river is the jurisdiction of Alberta Environment and was developed to meet the one in 100 year event on the waterway. But Esarte said the capacity of the river may have changed since mid ‘70s, when the mitigation was put in place, and the hydraulic model will allow the Town to assess that.
Esarte said when river forecast information is provided and any communications from TransAlta of spillways being used upstream, Canmore will be able to forecast days in advance how much water is expected and compare it with its calculation for capacity.
If emergency response is needed to shore up the dykes along the Bow River, that provides time to get those resources in place.
Residents may have noticed orange paint markings along the riverbank and according to municipal engineer Blair Birch, those markings establish horizontal control points for the drone surveys.
“We are using a variety of ways to obtain data to make sure the model is as comprehensive as possible,” Birch said.
