MONTPELIER, Vt. — U.S. and Canadian scientists are planning to spend the next five years studying flooding on Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River, which drains the lake north into Quebec, and whether methods can be developed to control future flooding.
Besides studying the causes of past floods, particularly the historic floods in 2011, the scientists will look for ways to better forecast flooding and measures to reduce the effects of future floods, considered likely with weather extremes in an era of climate change.
The scientists conducting the $11.3 million study will look at issues such as what effect the Chambly Canal, which takes vessels around a series of rapids near the Quebec city of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, could have on flooding, said Jean-Francois Cantin, chief of east hydrological operations for Canada’s National Hydrological Service.
They also could focus on how V-shaped, man-made stone eel-traps, visible in aerial photos of the river shoals, could affect the flow of the river, said Cantin.
“The shoals there are really the natural control of the whole system upstream of Saint-Jeansur-Richelieu, the lake [and] the water levels,” he said.
The board is conducting the study for the International Joint Commission, an organization formed in 1909 to manage boundary water problems between Canada and the United States.