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Community Flood Maps

Flood maps for communities are available from the Province of British Columbia or from your local municipality. Check with your municipality to find out the most up-to-date maps.

Public flood maps are most commonly available in PDF. Sometimes maps are available through interactive online portals or made available for download in different file formats (e.g., GIS shapefile, Google Earth KML) if they are used for spatial analysis.

How do I find community flood maps?

	River Flood Hazard Area (Floodplain) Maps The Province of British Columbia, through past flood mapping programs, has mapped areas of BC that are highly susceptible to riverine (river) flooding. These areas are designated as flood hazard areas by the federal and provincial governments. The maps can be found on the Province of BC website (Floodplain Maps by Region). This information is also available on the iMapBC portal, where you can overlay the flood hazard areas with other spatial data.
	Coastal Flood Hazard Area Maps The Province has undertaken mapping to identify potential coastal flood hazard areas in the year 2100, accounting for sea level rise. The maps are high-level and are designed to highlight areas that may benefit from the development of coastal flood maps. The maps can be found on the Province of BC website (Coastal Floodplain Maps).

River Flood Hazard Area (Floodplain) Maps

The Province of British Columbia, through past flood mapping programs, has mapped areas of BC that are highly susceptible to riverine (river) flooding. These areas are designated as flood hazard areas by the federal and provincial governments. The maps can be found on the Province of BC website (Floodplain Maps by Region).

This information is also available on the iMapBC portal, where you can overlay the flood hazard areas with other spatial data.

Coastal Flood Hazard Area Maps

The Province has undertaken mapping to identify potential coastal flood hazard areas in the year 2100, accounting for sea level rise. The maps are high-level and are designed to highlight areas that may benefit from the development of coastal flood maps. The maps can be found on the Province of BC website (Coastal Floodplain Maps).

Local Governments

Some Lower Mainland local governments have developed flood maps to support the development and implementation of local flood management strategies and flood regulations. Maps may be associated with reports, official community plans or bylaws. You may also find online map portals that contain flood hazard area (floodplain) layers.

Most interactive portals have a search function to help you find the flood layer.

To find the most up-to-date flood maps for your community, check with your municipality.

Here are examples* of flood mapping websites:

City of Vancouver Mapping Portal (VanMap). The portal contains mapping of the City’s designated flood hazard area and wave-effect zone. The flood mapping supports the administration of the City’s floodplain standards (PDF), which are applied to building permits and subdivisions.
City of Surrey Mapping Online System (COSMOS). The system contains mapping for the City’s 0.5% AEP flood hazard areas. The mapping is used, among other things, to administer the City’s Flood Prone Hazard Lands Development Permit Area requirements.
City of Chilliwack Webmap. The webmap shows protected and unprotected flood hazard areas, as well as flood construction levels regulated through the City’s Floodplain Management Bylaw (PDF).

Some flood hazard maps are prepared by local governments as part of a long-term strategy or planning process. Here are two examples:

District of Squamish Integrated Flood Hazard Management Plan maps: (PDF)
- Flood hazard maps
- Flood construction level maps
- Water velocity map.

City of Surrey Coastal Flood Adaptation Strategy maps: (PDF)
- Flood hazard maps, see pages 16–21.

We want to profile more flood maps! Please contact us if you have a page to share.

*Efforts will be made, but no commitment expressed, to update the maps linked in this section as new information becomes available.

Lower Mainland Flood Management Strategy

The 2019 Lower Fraser River 2D Flood Modelling and Mapping Project is a major component of the Lower Mainland Flood Management Strategy. The flood model shows the extents and depths of flooding for a different riverine and coastal flood scenarios to support authorities in regional flood planning.

Animation videos are also available in some cases. The animations illustrate how a flood scenario progresses over a period of weeks and can be used to support emergency planning, for example, by showing how much time is available before the water reaches essential facilities following a dike breach or overtopping.

See the Maps.