Thanks to critical investments in flood mitigation, Calgary’s flood damage potential of a 1:100 flood has been reduced by 70 per cent. Although this means our city is more flood resilient than ever, our river communities remain vulnerable to varying degrees of flooding. Development regulations in flood hazard areas remain essential to ensure safety and address residual risks, including groundwater impacts during river floods. Through the Calgary River Valleys Project (CRVP), we’re working to update Calgary’s Land Use Bylaw to reflect updated floodplain mapping and regulations.

This third stage of public engagement as part of the Calgary River Valleys Project (CRVP) is focused on presenting draft updated regulatory floodplain mapping and regulations for public feedback. This includes:

• Flood Hazard Areas: In May 2025, the Government of Alberta released updated Flood Hazard Area maps for communities across the province, including Calgary. The updated Flood Hazard Area maps reflect the latest understanding of a 1:100 flood. The province has adopted a new approach to flood hazard area mapping. This approach divides the flood hazard area into four categories (two of which are new) that reflect the level of risk of overland flooding. The City has developed draft proposed regulations aligned to this new mapping.
• River-flood related Groundwater Flood Areas: The City completed a groundwater study to deepen our understanding of Calgary’s river flood-induced groundwater risk. The study mapped groundwater levels during a 1 in 100-year flood event. The City is proposing to incorporate this into Calgary’s regulatory flood map as a new Groundwater Flood Fringe.  

The draft regulations are intended to:

• Align planning and development with flood protection investments.
• Address both overland and groundwater river flood risks.
• Enhance safety in high-risk areas, especially for basement living spaces.
• Help buildings recover from more severe floods as our climate changes.

After the draft regulations are finalized, they will be presented for approval at a Public Hearing of City Council in 2026. 

Until the new maps and regulations are finalized and City of Calgary policies and bylaws have been updated, development applications will continue to be assessed under the current Land Use Bylaw.

However, we’ll continue to share the best available flood risk information with development applicants and others to provide advisory comments for further resilience, or to permit relaxations as appropriate, just as we’ve done since 2013.