PROJECT OBJECTIVE

As part of its Riverbend South Development, the City of London, Ontario needed to design stormwater facilities that would ensure the protection of sensitive fish habitat in a tributary to the Thames River.

An environmental assessment of the Riverbend area identified that increased stormwater as well as reductions in groundwater discharge had the potential to degrade cold water fish habitat.

OUR ROLE

Matrix Solutions was retained by the City of London to provide engineering services to support the functional design of stormwater managing and servicing works for lands within the drainage area of the cold water stream.

As part of the function design, Matrix:

• Completed aquatic and geomorphic field assessments to confirm the presence of fish habitat identified in the earlier environmental assessment.
• Completed a geotechnical and hydrogeological field investigation.
• Created continuous surface water and groundwater models to simulate the effect of changes in the landscape on stream flow and temperature in the coldwater tributary
• Completed functional design of stormwater retention and groundwater recharge facilities, and evaluate scenarios to illustrate the stream flow and temperature conditions in the cold water tributary would be maintained.
• Finalized the functional design of stormwater management facilities and major and minor conveyance systems

OUTCOME

The City of London received an Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) from the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to move ahead with detailed design and construction.