Frazil ice monitoring study in the Bow River consisting of field data collecting and 1D river modelling to predict the frequency and severity of frazil ice at The City's raw water supply stations (existing RAW2 and future RAW3 Locations 1 and 3).
A non-competitive agreement is justified to retain the University of Alberta for this work for the following reasons: The University of Alberta offers unique expertise in river ice process modelling, notably as the developer of the River1D model, which is specifically designed to simulate frazil ice dynamics, suspended ice transport, and ice cover formation in complex river systems. They also developed River2D, a complementary two-dimensional hydraulic model widely used.
A previous attempt by a consultant retained by The City to simulate Bow River ice processes using a different model platform was unsuccessful. The platform was unable to reliably simulate key ice processes and struggled with the Bow River’s complex channel geometry, leading to numerical instability.
Given these challenges, the University of Alberta is uniquely positioned to adapt and apply River1D to the Bow River context, maximizing the likelihood of a successful outcome.
