A warm spring, early snowpack melt, and slightly above-average precipitation levels in May have resulted in average-to-below-average river flows this season.
New web and mobile applications will help keep Albertans informed and allow municipalities to respond faster and more efficiently if conditions change.
Today, the province provided an update on conditions in the region. Warm spring temperatures and an early melt have led to relatively normal flows and have perhaps eased concerns about rivers overflowing. While snowpack and soil moisture levels are two of the factors used to assess flood potential, it is important to note that intense rainfall can change river conditions quickly.
Tracking river conditions and the effect heavy rainfall may have on river basins in the province is vital. Albertans have expressed their interest in being provided with access to crucial information that will keep them informed of changing situations in river basins at home and across the province.
“In an emergency situation, it’s critical to get accurate information quickly to those who need it. The rivers.alberta.ca website and Alberta Rivers app allow Albertans to access important information at the click of a button, and the emergency managers’ web portal is a valuable addition that will help our municipal partners deliver a
well-timed, co-ordinated response during a flood to help ensure public safety in a changing climate where extreme weather events are more common and more severe.”
The province has also launched version 3.0 of the Alberta Rivers mobile application and a new rivers.alberta.ca website which includes an online web portal for municipal emergency management personnel that will help keep communities safe, minimize the impacts of future floods and adapt to a changing climate.
“Nearly three years on, Calgarians remember how our community and resilience was tested by the floods of 2013. Since then, we’ve done much to protect Calgarians from future flooding. The launch of the updated Alberta Rivers mobile application and the new rivers.alberta.ca website is another good step forward by giving citizens and emergency managers much-needed advance warning of possible flooding. These tools will improve public safety and our emergency response times. This Government of Alberta project is an investment in the protection and resiliency of our community.”
Key features of the new web portal for municipal emergency managers include:
- Portal access provides the most current data possible to emergency managers;
- Instant contact with the province’s River Forecast Centre, including chat, document viewer and whiteboard tools that will streamline communications between the River Forecast Centre and municipalities during a flood event; and
- The community diary feature which allows chronological documentation of flood events to improve post-event analysis and historical knowledge transfer.
“The City of Calgary continues to works with our partners and other levels of government to prepare for future flood emergencies and improve warning times. Every flood event is different and our actions leading up to and during a flood depend on the specifics of each event. The rivers.alberta.ca website and Alberta Rivers app are valuable tools that will help guide future flood responses while ensuring improved co-ordination and communication between citizens, municipal partners and the province.”
The Alberta Rivers app enables advisories to be sent directly to a user’s mobile device via a push notification and provides detailed information on river flows, lake levels, precipitation, snowpack and ice conditions across the province, updated hourly. Version 3.0 includes low-flow alarms to serve an increasing number of users wishing to use the app to monitor river conditions during dry periods.
The new rivers.alberta.ca website is modelled after the popular mobile application and is very similar in layout and functionality, although push notifications are available only through the mobile application.