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ABSTRACT
Delineation of flood hazard and risk on maps is useful as a means of public education and as a basis for measures aimed at lessening future flood damages. In many northern countries, rivers and streams are prone to ice-related flooding that often results in higher water levels and more extensive damages than open-water events. Procedures and standards for analysing ice-related flooding, however, are much less common than well-established standardized approaches for the open-water events. Nonetheless, the inherent flood hazard along many northern and mid-latitude rivers is not fully represented on flood-plain, flood-hazard, and flood-risk mapping if the possibility of ice-jam floods is ignored. Fortunately, the biophysical, past-flood, and flood-envelope approaches for flood hazard can be readily applied to ice-related floods, and hydrotechnical approaches based on an improved understanding of river-ice processes have been developed. In this paper, the nature and severity of ice-jam flooding, the present status of delineating ice-related flood events, and challenges to delineating ice-related floods are discussed.
Acknowledgements
This paper arose from discussions during a meeting of the CGU-Hydrology Committee on River Ice Processes and the Environment, of which the authors are members. The members of the Committee are thanked for their advice and encouragement during the preparation of this paper. The authors also express appreciation to their employers for their support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.