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(Halifax, NS) -
The Town of Oxford will soon have the information it needs to lessen
the risk of floods in the community. Starting this Fall, a joint
project between the Town of Oxford, Oxford Frozen Foods, Nova Scotia
Community College (NSCC), and Acadia University will use
high-resolution elevation data to produce maps and visualizations of
low-lying areas in the Town, and to identify potential flood
inundation throughout the Municipality.
In March 2003, the
Town of Oxford experienced flooding that led to damage of
residential and commercial properties and a declared state of
emergency. “After the flooding occurred, we started investigating
options to lessen the risk of future flooding and in turn, protect
residents and business owners in our Town,” says Darrell White, CAO
of the Town of Oxford. “Soon, we’ll have the information we need to
plan for a safer community.”
Much of the expertise
required to collect and interpret the data comes from a team of NSCC
research scientists and research student interns. NSCC’s Applied
Geomatics Research Group (AGRG) in Middleton is responsible for
acquiring the high-resolution elevation data using airborne Light
Detection and Ranging (LIDAR). Post-graduate level research on flood
risk assessment will be carried out at Acadia University by Doug
Stiff (B.Sc. Queen’s University), an NSCC graduate who has been
working on the Oxford project at AGRG. Stiff will be supervised by
Dr. Ian Spooner at Acadia, Dr. Chris Hopkinson and Dr. Tim Webster
at NSCC.
“We have used LIDAR in
settings throughout North America to assess coastal zone flooding,”
says Dr. Chris Hopkinson, a research scientist with the AGRG.
Hopkinson has traveled with NSCC research students and interns to
destinations such as South Georgia, USA, British Columbia, Alberta
and Saskatchewan to partner on water resources and flood risk
assessment projects. “The Oxford project is the first time we will
be using airborne LIDAR to assess inland flood risks. We consider
this project to be a great expansion of our research experience,
with an important outcome for residents and business operators in
Cumberland County.”
Businesses such as
Oxford Frozen Foods believe it’s important to support such projects.
“We have been proud to invest in Cumberland County and we are
interested in seeing this region thrive into the future,” says David
Hoffman, Oxford Frozen Foods. “This research gives our entire
community more confidence to think with optimism about our future.
It’s impressive that we have access to such expertise in our own
province. We’re looking forward to the results of the project.”
The flood inundation
and flood map visualizations will be delivered as a GIS (Geographic
Information Systems) database by September 2007. In addition to the
delivery of data, the NSCC and Acadia principal investigators and
the graduate student will present methods and conclusions of the
research in September 2007.
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