Water Resource Mapping to Support Wildfire Response

Living Lakes Canada is collaborating with rural communities to inventory, measure and map water resources to support wildfire suppression. By applying water data in tandem with community knowledge, we are helping communities better prepare for wildfire response and adapt to a changing climate.

PROGRAM GOAL

To pair local knowledge with water data to inform wildfire response in rural areas. Information gathered is compiled into interactive maps and shared with local emergency response organizations and British Columbia Wildfire Service.

HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS

In each project area, a local organization acts as the Community Partner – they may also appoint an individual Community Champion. The Community Partner and Champion help the Living Lakes team to understand local priorities and context, and effectively engage with residents.

Local water knowledge is essential to these studies. At the start of each project, community members are invited to share water resources and other features to be included in the maps. Participation in this program is voluntary, and data from private lands is only included with landowners' consent.

Following the community engagement and a review of existing data sources, the Living Lakes field team carries out site visits to take measurements at locations recommended by the community, and at additional locations discovered through field reconnaissance.

The resulting maps include locations and details about features such as:

High-pressure standpipes
Ideal pump-deployment locations in creeks
Locations of buildings and residences
Access routes
Potential helicopter landing sites

The Living Lakes GIS team prepares these maps in several formats, so that they can be viewed using various apps and programs. Each point on the maps includes detailed information such as location coordinates, landowner contact details, access instructions, water pressure and flow rates.

As these resources include information gathered on private properties, the complete professional versions are only shared with the Community Partner and relevant emergency response organizations, including BC Wildfire Service. A public version is shared more widely that omits sensitive information.

To learn more about this project, contact wildfire@livinglakescanada.ca.

BACKGROUND

This project is based on a pilot that was rolled out in 2023 in Argenta BC. The pilot combined Columbia Basin Water Monitoring Framework data with community knowledge and information from the Argenta Safety and Preparedness Society (ASAP) to map locations of water sources available for fire suppression. The resulting digital maps identified all available water sources in the community. Argenta was affected by wildfire shortly after the pilot project was completed, leading to the immediate use of the resources by BC Wildfire Service. The maps were acknowledged for helping to reduce the time spent carrying out field reconnaissance by firefighters. View the report developed for the community of Argenta in 2024 below.

Following this, many other communities became interested in replicating this project, leading to the program’s expansion. Mapping projects have been initiated in additional communities including Winlaw, Red Mountain Road and Enterprise Creek, Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi'it and Grasmere, with additional communities to be included in 2026.