Flood Resilience in the Lake Champlain Basin and Upper Richelieu River

Castle, S., E. Howe, E. Bird, W. Howland. 2013. Flood Resilience in the Lake Champlain Basin and Upper Richelieu River. Grand Isle, VT: Lake Champlain Basin Program.

The flood events of 2011 left a profound and lasting impact on the watersheds of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River Valley and their residents. Lake Champlain reached flood stage on April 13, 2011 and remained above this level for 67 days until June 19, 2011. A new record was set on May 6, 2011, when Lake Champlain crested at 103.27 feet above mean sea level. High water levels severely impacted the shoreline of the Lake, inundating houses and other lakeshore structures at low elevations, eroding vast amounts of shoreline that had not previously been exposed to wave action. The Richelieu River, Lake Champlain’s outlet, was also greatly affected by the high water levels, and several communities along the River were severely impacted by flooding for the two-month duration of the spring 2011 events. A few short months later, Tropical Storm Irene arrived in the region on August 28, 2011, bringing significant rainfall to the southern segments of the Champlain Basin and causing severe flash flooding of tributaries in this area, impacting thousands of people in Vermont and New York.

The Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) was commissioned by Governor Shumlin of Vermont and Premier Charest of Québec to coordinate a conference to address the spring 2011 flooding of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River Valley. The impacts of Tropical Storm Irene were subsequently added to this request. The LCBP hosted
workshops in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec and Plattsburgh, New York to discuss specific topics associated with the Lake and tributary flooding. A two-day conference was then held in June 2012 in Burlington, Vermont to continue discussion of ideas proposed in these workshops and to discuss topics such as climate change impacts to the region,
impacts to the lakeshore and tributaries from flooding, emergency response, transportation and other infrastructure, and agriculture.