Calgarians care about our river areas – 83% say these spaces are important to them personally. Whether you live, work or play in Calgary, you depend on healthy river areas to support clean drinking water, resilience to flood and drought, plant and animal life, recreational opportunities and experiences of nature in the city.

Calgarians also care that The City of Calgary has a plan to preserve and protect our river areas. The 2013 Riparian Strategy outlined a high level framework with a vision, principles, and strategies for protecting our river areas. This has been followed up with a more detailed plan, called the Riparian Action Program (RAP). Check out the Healthy Rivers Story Map to learn all about Calgary’s watersheds, rivers, riparian areas, and restoration and management actions. Related events and volunteer activities are also listed here.

The RAP document is intended to be used by planners, engineers, practitioners and watershed stewards within The Corporation and the community for direction and ideas on how to protect and restore riparian landscapes in Calgary. It is intended to help practitioners and citizens actively engage and align their work across Calgary’s watersheds. Scroll down to find related information, including maps, guidelines and tools, relevant policy documents and information about monitoring.

The Riparian Areas Mapping Project Report (2013), provides background technical information on the process for mapping riparian areas along major rivers and streams in Calgary.

These techniques were used to produce the following map booklets:

• Bow River riparian area maps
• Elbow River riparian area maps
• Nose Creek and West Nose Creek riparian area maps
• Twelve Mile Coulee, Coach Creek, Confederation Creek, Forest Lawn Creek, Radio Tower Creek and Pine Creek riparian area maps
• The Open Data Catalogue also includes:
  • Spatial data on riparian area locations
  • The City's Environmental Reserve Setback areas
  • Non permanent streams (ephemeral and intermittent streams) maps

*Contact City of Calgary Water Resources for more information about example sites and locations.

The methodology used by The City to assess riparian health is the Riparian Health Inventory (RHI) methodology developed by the Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society (Cows and Fish). For stream and small river systems, RHI scores are derived from an evaluation of 11 key vegetation and soil/hydrology health parameters assessed in the field. For large rivers like the Bow River, RHI scores are based on an evaluation of eight of these parameters in addition to seven others related to tree cover and hydrology (see figure below). The parameters assessed are largely based on visual estimates made in the field by trained observers, supplemented by measurements. The riparian health scores (ratings) are expressed both as a percentage score and in terms of one of three health categories: Healthy, Healthy with Problems, and Unhealthy.