With a variety of experts saying cities and builders need to take a changing climate into consideration, a huge new stadium complex is proposed on the bank of the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta.
The Calgary Flames hockey organization announced their plans last week for an almost billion dollar hockey arena, covered football stadium and multi-sport fieldhouse on the bank of the Bow River on the west side of the downtown, dubbed CalgaryNEXT
Just two years ago, in 2013, Calgary was the location of the most costly flood in Canadian history when a massive rainstorm combined with heavy snow-pack melting resulted in the Bow and Elbow Rivers flooding a large section of the city.
The southern Alberta floods lare estimated to have cost private insurers $2.25 billion, even though damage to residences was generally not covered.
John Pomeroy is a hydrology professor at the University of Saskatchewan, and holds the Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change. He said he’s shocked by the proposed location.
Quoted in the Calgary Herald newspaper, he said, “The only thing that should be happening in the floodplains in Calgary in terms of development is the development of green spaces. It’s astonishing two years after the flood.”
Calgary Flames president, Ken King, defended the development with it’s proposed cost of 890-million dollars. King said the location is out of the flood plain and dismissed concerns saying the 2013 flooding was on the other side of the city.
However, a 2012 study by the city said an event larger than 2013 would likely flood the proposed area as well.
Pomery says with climate change, it’s not a question of “if” but “when” that area would experience flooding.
Wild weather: cities need to plan for the “new normal”
In September of 2013, senior executives of 13 major insurance companies said homeowners in Calgary would never have access to comprehensive flood insurance unless there were new maps of flood-prone areas that took climate change into consideration.
The insurance companies say, maps not only should cover historical flood patterns but also weather conditions going forward as the planet warms and climate changes.
Pomeroy noted in the Herald that, “There will be extremely extensive damage to the facility, and we have to remember that the flood in Calgary was not even a one-in-50 year event, and so there’s a likelihood of another flood that size or larger occurring over the lifetime of the building.”
He said the only development on the flood plains should be in creation of green spaces.
At least one city councillor was aggravated by Pomeroy’s comments. Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carla Carra said it’s too late to start moving things away from the river. He said money should be spent to mitigate flooding to protect the buildings and investment there. He added the city shouldn’t be creating parks- that cost money- but allow tax-generating development.
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