The City of Calgary and The Government of Alberta have partnered to create a project that demonstrates how bioengineering can be used to improve fish habitat and stabilize erodible river banks. Their goal is to increase awareness and understanding of how soil bioengineering structures are built, what benefits they can bring to our watershed, and how they might be used to mitigate the impacts of future flood events.
The key objectives of this project include the following:
- Re-establish fish habitat degraded by recent flood recovery activities at the project location on the Bow River using bioengineering techniques.
- Stabilize slopes and control bank erosion at the project location.
- Restore riparian health and related functions at the project location to improve watershed resiliency.
- Demonstrate a range of soil bioengineering techniques and their applicability to different site conditions.
- Increase understanding and support knowledge transfer, research and partnerships among The City, the Province, professional practitioners, industry, academia and the public about bioengineering practices and techniques
- Create an aesthetically pleasing river interface along the project area.
- Monitor, evaluate, and report on the effectiveness of the different bioengineering techniques used in the construction of the project