The Devil is in the Details: Assumptions and Reality Collide in Urban Dike Breach Modelling

2017 Canadian Society for Civil Engineers (CSCE) Annual Conference.

KWL’s David Roche and Allison Seuarz co-authored this paper with David Rouston of the District of Squamish and David Sellars.  The paper discusses the intricacies of urban dike breach modelling by describing a detailed dike breach model that was developed for the Squamish River floodplain as part of the District of Squamish Integrated Flood Hazard Management Plan (IFHMP).

The model considers the interdependence between architecture and preferential flow pathways as well as alternative representations of floodplain structures, compatibility of climate change and development assumptions, the iterative nature of floodproofing and flood risk, and the potential for breaches occurring anywhere along the developed floodplain’s 20 km perimeter.

Click on the link below to read the article.
CSCE Conference Paper