British Columbia maintains a comprehensive index of maps showing floodplains, or flood hazard limits / flood areas, throughout the province of BC. These maps illustrate flood risks associated with large river systems as opposed to urban overland flow systems that can cause urban flooding.
The map to the right is an overview of BC flood map areas. Use the links in the list below to find the floodplain map for a particular river, creek, reservoir or lake.
 |
| Langley Floodplain Map |
To the left is an example of a floodplain map for a particular area - in this case for Langley, B.C. (click to enlarge). Zooming in shows buildings and properties that lie within the flood risk zone. I have spliced together parts of two maps to show an area near the Langley Bypass and Frazer Highway with residential properties within the flood hazard area.
 |
| Close-up of buildings in flood risk zone. |
 |
| Variable river flooding depths for rare event. |
The maps show over a hundred buildings within the risk zone. Remember this map shows the limits for a 200-year floodplain - this is the limit of river flooding during a 200-year rainfall event, which is and extreme storm having a chance of occurring of 0.5% every year (1/200%). While this seems rare, if you lived in one of the buildings at the edge of the flood hazard (i.e., right on the floodline), you would have had a 22% change of being flooded over that period. This risk is often misreported by saying you would expect that flood event once in every 200 years (this implies a 100% chance over that period). In fact in 200 years there is only a 63% chance of being flooded.
Th bird's eye view shows some of the variation in flooding depth based on the map's topographic elevations and flood elevations that vary along the river length. You can see that the flood depth varies considerably. The townhomes that have 130 cm of flooding during that flood would have a much higher chance of being flooded during a smaller storm than those with only 10 cm of flooding during the 200 year flood event. Alternatively, for any given storm, the flood damages would be greater the closer the building is to the valley bottom with deeper flooding.
Based on flood risk mapping, do you need flood insurance for your property?
Find and insurance broker through the The Insurance Brokers Association of B.C. here.
Here are the links to the available floodplain maps in BC (
*update Nov. 2021 - get newest links here: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/air-land-water/water/drought-flooding-dikes-dams/integrated-flood-hazard-management/flood-hazard-land-use-management/floodplain-mapping/floodplain-maps-by-region):
Bella Coola River
Eagle River Drawing No. A5187 Sheets 1 to 7 - Designation Date 87/12/03
Elk River near Elkford*
Elk River at Fernie Drawing No. A5196 Sheets 1 to 7 - Designation Date 87/12/03
Elk River and Michel Creek near Sparwood*
Okanagan River: Osoyoos to Penticton*
Osoyoos Lake*(see Okanagan River: Osoyoos to Penticton)
Drawing No. 89-12
Sheets 1 to 15 - Designation Date 93/09/30
Otter Creek and Lake (see Tulameen River) Drawing No. A5294 Sheets 1 to 4 - Designation Date 87/12/03
Oyster River* Drawing No. 5532 Sheets 1 to 3 - Designation Date 88/09/30
Peace River*: B.C. / Alberta Border to Site C
Salmo River including Erie Creek
Salmon River: Salmon Arm - Spa Creek
Salmon River: Spa Creek - Falkland
Shuswap River: Mara Lake to Mabel Lake
Skeena River: Lakelse-Terrace-Usk
Whistler Area* Drawing No. 89-16 Sheets 1 to 4 - Designation Date 93/09/30
Williams Lake Drawing No. 88-46 Sheets 1 & 2 - Designation Date 90/09/30
Zeballos River* Drawing No. 89-45 sheet 1 - Designation Date 92/09/30
Zymagotitz River (see Skeena River: Lakelse-Terrace-Usk)
Drawing No. 5375 Sheets 1 to 9 of 13 - Designation Date 87/12/03
Zymoetz (Copper) River Drawing No. 84-63 sheet 1 - Designation Date 87/12/03
Alternatively use this index map to find flood hazard mapping in your area:
Region 1 - Vancouver Island
Click the project name (river name in red text below) to view the key plan of the area covered.
Courtenay, Puntledge and Tsolum Rivers
Cowichan Lake Drawing No. 84-33 1 to 6 - Designation Date 87/12/03
Nanaimo River Drawing No. 84-29 1 to 3 - Designation Date 87/12/03
Oyster River* Drawing No. 5532 1 to 3 - Designation Date 88/09/30
Quatse River* Drawing No. 89-7 sheet 1 - Designation Date 94/09/30
Somass River Drawing No. 93-10 1 to 4 - Designation Date 97/09/30
Sooke River* Drawing No. 91-4 1 to 2 - Designation Date 95/09/30
Region 2 - Lower Mainland
Click the project name (river name in red text below) to view the key plan of the area covered.
Alpha Lake* (see Whistler Area) Drawing No. 89-16 1 to 4 - Designation Date 93/09/30
Alpha Lake* (see Whistler Area) Drawing No. 89-16 1 to 4 - Designation Date 93/09/30
Birkenhead River (see Lillooet River) Drawing No. 88-44 1 to 11 - Designation Date 90/09/30
Serpentine and Nicomekl Rivers
Vedder River Drawing No. 85-53 1 & 2 - Designation Date 87/12/03
Region 3 - Southern Interior
Click the project name (river name / red text below) to view the key plan of the area covered.
Bessette Creek (see Shuswap River, Bessette & Duteau Creeks )
Drawing No. 96 - 7 1 to 8 - Designation Date 98/09/30
Christina Lake
Coldwater River (see Nicola R. - Canford to Nicola L.) Drawing No. 87-22 13 - Designation Date 89/09/30
Eagle River Drawing No. A5187 1 to 7 - Designation Date 87/12/03
Kettle River - Midway Rock Creek Westbridge Drawing No. 93 - 13 1 to 8 - Designation Date 97/09/30
Mission Creek Drawing No. 84-43 1 to 3 - Designation Date 87/12/03
Nicola River: Spences Bridge to Nicola Lake
North Thompson River: Kamloops - Vavenby
Drawing No. A5302 - Sheet 1 is an index map of the whole project showing all sheets.
Okanagan River: Osoyoos to Penticton*
Osoyoos Lake*(see Okanagan River: Osoyoos to Penticton)
Drawing No. 89-12
Sheets 1 to 15 - Designation Date 93/09/30
Otter Creek and Lake (see Tulameen River)Drawing No. A5294 Sheets 1 to 4 - Designation Date 87/12/03
Salmon River: Salmon Arm - Spa Creek
Salmon River: Spa Creek - Falkland
Seymour River at Seymour Arm* Drawing No. 89-11 1 & 2 - Designation Date 91/09/30
*Designated Floodplain Map WITHDRAWN
Shuswap River: Mara Lake to Mabel Lake
Similkameen River at Keremeos
South Thompson River: Kamloops - Chase
Thompson and North Thompson Rivers: Kamloops Area
Vaseux Lake (Okanagan River: Osoyoos to Penticton)
Drawing No. 89-12 8 & 9 of 15 - Designation Date 93/09/30
* Interim Designated
Region 4 - Kootenay
Click the project name (river name / red text below) to view the key plan of the area covered.
Columbia Lake (see Kootenay R. at Canal Flats)
Drawing No. 89-41 1 to 8 - Designation Date 91/09/30
Elk River near Elkford*
Elk River at Fernie Drawing No. A5196 Sheets 1 to 7 - Designation Date 87/12/03
Elk River and Michel Creek near Sparwood*
Salmo River including Erie Creek
Slocan River Drawing No. 88-26 1 to 11 - Designation Date 90/03/31
* Interim Designated
Region 5- Cariboo
Click the project name (river name / red text below) to view the key plan of the area covered.
Baker Creek* (see Fraser and Quesnel R. below) Drawing No. 89-43 1 to 5 - Designation Date 92/09/30
Bella Coola River
Williams Lake - Drawing No. 88-46 1 & 2 - Designation Date 90/09/30
* Interim Designated
Region 6 - SKEENA
Click the project name (river name / red text below) to view the key plan of the area covered.
Skeena River: Lakelse-Terrace-Usk
* Interim Designated
Region 7 - Omineca Peace
Click the project name (river name / red text below) to view the key plan of the area covered.
Chilako River
Drawing No. 93 - 1 1 to 3 - Designation Date 97/09/30
Peace River*: B.C. / Alberta Border to Site C
* Interim Designated
***
Regarding recent flooding in Merritt, B.C. (November 2021), due to atmospheric rivers, see floodplain mapping for Nicola and Coldwater River, Spences Bridge to Nicola Lake:
Merritt, B.C. floodplain map is on sheet 13:
Flood flow rates projected below were above above historical maximum flows observed in 1980 and above the 200-year design flow (see stable below from floodplain mapping technical report).
