I really love these videos Uytae makes. I love how locally specific they are and they touch on really important topics that are so niche. They shed light on a lot of things I have noticed and was superficially curious on but never got around to knowing more about. These videos are great for just that. Thank you!
The Abbotsford floods were from unusually heavy water flow, yes, but the biggest problem is that the flooded area is built on a drained lake. The area isn't just a flood plain, but naturally has a lake and isn't even permanent, fully "reclaimed land"; the area only keeps dry as open farm land to this day because of pump stations and canals keeping it that way. The floods were devastating, but not surprising.
And the water didn't come from the Fraser River but from the south, the Americans had avoided the investments required to prevent their river from topping out, and spilling into the Matsqui flats
You forgot that Abbotsford was built in a place where it use to be a wetland. It was drained for farmers because of the fertile land. Its just nature trying to take back what was hers. Not so much climate change. As for Calgary. If you go to the aboriginal museum, you will see that the Natives here never built that close to the river because they knew it always flooded every 7 years or so. Europeans obviously didn’t listen because of their “conquer the land” mentality. Its now catching up to us.
I've come to appreciate Uytae's videos about Vancouver and environs. One excellent example of a way to do local news - it's valuable to me even if I live all the way in Ontario.
I've been in the environmental field for a decade of education and teaching. It's still strange to me that it's somehow foreign to so many people that, faced with constantly rebuilding or moving...they rebuild and suffer massive loss, trauma, debt, stress, and risk to themselves simply to live somewhere. The alternative of a singular loss, a singular potential financial hit, and a singular rebuilding seems to avoid this dangerous sunk-cost fallacy. We need to make room for a more dangerous climate, if we are in the way, we lose.
We also neglect to mention that low lying communities were created by draining natural lakes and flood plains for farming. When nature decides to reclaim what was annexed, we shouldn't be surprised by getting flooded out.
We see similar results of sprawling suburban neighborhoods as well in the flip side in California some are being too close to wildfire prone areas as well compared to flood prone areas. It’s better to bring up density in major transit corridors or increase gentle density and development in current neighborhoods if people would be commuting out to other cities or be living closer to where they work.
Very excited to see another video by Uytae! Love his stuff. Since the flood in Abbotsford was the focal point of the intro though, I wish there had been at least a mention of how flooding in that particular area was largely man-made, namely due to the colonial practices and displacement of native peoples that culminated in the draining of Sumas Lake, the cutting off of Luckakuck Creek and Atchelitz Creek, and the widening of Vedder Creek into Vedder River, all of which wildly increased the flooding issues in the area. Land and Lore has a great video about it called 'We got rid of a lake and it keeps coming back' if anyone's interested. I know this is far too complicated and sensitive a topic to go into in a video on another subject, but I think it would have been nice to at least mention it in passing if the Abbotsford flooding was going to be the focal point at the beginning. Does Vancouver have any rewilding initiatives? I know that turning land back into marsh and swamp is thankfully gaining traction in other parts of the world. I'm curious if any local plans or proposals are in place for that. Thanks for another good video!
$10 Billion? would it cost more without immigration and if 100% of the truck drivers were Canadian workers? or is this figure including all the temporary workers who didnt have to pay for the MELT program?
Very interesting! I am amazed how you can see the issue from a completely different angle. If you have not done it already - what is your thought on crime, violence, homelessness and drugs addiction in Metro Vancouver?
Here in The Battlefords, Saskatchewan the community has bought out all the homes and businesses on the floodplain over the last 30 years. It’s like the modern Dutch concept of “Room for the River”. Moving communities out of harms way and creating more green space for the public.
3:43 Winnipeg 1960s Red River Floodway routes water around the city (but 1997 flood taxed the system) 6:33 Netherlands "Room for the River" dike expansion 6:44 Washington State "Floodplains by Design"
I am a person born by the Fraser and has lived in Holland for 15 years and am back here again. We need to look seriously as a "Room For The River" program here in BC.
Floods are the reason floodplains are great growing areas. We should allow the flooding of more of our fields to replenish them and refill our aquifers.
The BC Liberal Government offloaded the costs of maintaining the Fraser river to the Municipalities themselves. Making each town and city a potential weak link in the chain that all of the communities are a part of. Such infrastructure management requires more than the budget of Abbotsford alone.
We adapt to them, we don't try to adept them to us... stop building houses in flood plains & ancient wild fire zones then crying when you get flooded or your house burns down...
Way too few people talking about agriculture's role in floods. Modern tillage equipment is destroying so many acres of soil. Simple no-till methods would make these extreme rain events percolate and restore aquifers like they have for millennia again, but diesel is too cheap to consider changing!
How about working upstream? Let areas flood in the forests up in the mountains. Not only will it smooth water levels in Fraser Valley but also help these ecosystems (reduce forest fires...)
Here's a solution.... Beavers. Let these little workers do their thing and you might even see the rivers dry up completely. Allow this across the realm and we may see the oceans dry up as well. "Leave it to Beaver"
What about storing the water in large holding tanks like the ones we use for underground gas tanks ? The ghost town of Cerro Gordo in California had a custom made 45 thousand gallon tank for water . Would a few of these tanks placed in known flood plains with pumps attached to them be a viable option ?
I believe 'dyke' is in Holland for the ocean, and for rivers the term is levee. Fraser River 'Dyke' the wrong word to use. It should be levee. The Mississippi river has levees.
