Background to flood control measures in the Red and Assiniboine River Basins

Abstract

The City of Winnipeg and southern Manitoba have a long history of flooding, with flood events being recorded soon after the region was settled in the early nineteenth century. A devastating flood on the Red River in 1950 resulted in some of the earliest benefit–cost analyses in Canada with respect to flooding, and justified the construction of major flood mitigation projects on the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in the 1960s and 1970s. These projects were primarily designed to reduce the risk to the City of Winnipeg. Other projects have been constructed outside of the Winnipeg area, which have reduced flood damages to towns, individual farmsteads and rural residences. The level of flood protection has been re-evaluated every time a new flood of record occurs, and this has resulted in significant upgrading of existing works and the addition of more communities with permanent flood protection. As a result of the flood protection system that has been developed in Manitoba over the last 60 years, the damage caused by floods has been significantly reduced over natural conditions. The purpose of this paper is to provide context to flooding in Manitoba with a consideration of how flooding, flood damage and the impact on citizens of Manitoba have been mitigated by permanent flood protection works.