Flood Resiliency Recommendations
In December 2020, our team of geotechnical experts at Horizon Engineering compiled a list of recommendations to improve the flood resiliency of buildings. These recommendations were developed in consultation with teams of experts in British Columbia for the BC Housing initiative, Mobilizing Building Adaptation and Resilience (MBAR). Now more than ever, these recommendations highlight the importance of designing flood resilient buildings.
The primary focus of this initiative is to advocate designing for enhanced performance with respect to flood resiliency of new Part 3/4 Buildings governed by the BC Building Code / Vancouver Building By- law – and in particular, with regards to parkades – as the existing resources in this regard were found to be wanting. However, many of these recommendations are also suitable for Part 9 buildings and renovations / upgrades of existing buildings.
Read the full list of 108 recommendations here.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the building and flood experts who have contributed to the development of these recommendations or have otherwise increased the understanding of the project team.
This document is intended to be a ‘live’ document, with recommendations added, removed, and/or revised with increasing industry consultation and feasibility studies. The recommendations are presented in order of development, not importance.
We would like to thank the building and flood experts, listed at the end of this document, who have contributed to the development of these recommendations or have otherwise increased the understanding of this project team and the communities they serve.
Resources:
- BCBC Letters of Assurance: standard Forms of the British Columbia Building Code informing authorities having jurisdiction which aspects of the building (including the design and field reviews) are the responsibility of a particular registered professional
- Example Design Philosophy Statement ( PDF | MS Word )
- Flood Hazard Land Use Management
- Flood Hazard Area Land Use Management Guidelines (FHALUMG) (PDF)
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