Municipality Climate Adaptation Case Study Report

Although primarily rural, West Hants has two urbanized areas—Three Mile Plains and
Falmouth—located near the boundaries of the Town of Windsor. Both have been recognized as
Growth Centres in the West Hants Municipal Planning Strategy. Other settlement consists of
village and hamlet communities, cottage development primarily around lakes in the southern
part of the municipality, and farms and other more scattered rural development in resource
areas. The Town of Windsor represents the main service centre for residents of West Hants,
offering grocery stores and other retail, government offices, a regional high school, and medical
facilities including a hospital, doctors’ offices, pharmacies and ambulance service.
The municipality is divided into two main physiographic regions. A lowland plain extends from
the north in a wide arc around the Minas Basin and the Avon River, ending south of Windsor
where it meets the upland plain near Martock. 1 Much of the lowland plain has an elevation of
around 100 to 250 feet above sea level. 2 The upland plain covers the entire southern part of the
municipality and has an elevation of about 400 to 500 feet above sea level. 3
The central part of the municipality is bisected by the Avon River which has its headwaters in
the upland plain and discharges into the Minas Basin. The Avon’s principal tributaries are the St.
Croix, Kennetcook and Cogmagun rivers. The lower part of the Avon River valley is submerged
and forms a wide tidal estuary extending into the tributaries. The estuaries are bordered by
marshland, some of which is dyked. These dyked marshlands, which are below sea level, make
up approximately 2,436 ha (6,019 ac), or about two percent of the total land area of West Hants.
Dykelands are found along the flood plains of the Avon, St. Croix, Kennetcook, Herbert and
Meander Rivers (see Map 2 - Dykeland). The Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture maintains
30.5 km of running dyke in West Hants. 4 In all, West Hants has approximately 164 km of
shoreline with potential for exposure to sea level rise.
Several other features are important to the geography of West Hants and an understanding of
potential flood risk. These include the Avon River Causeway on Highway 101 at Falmouth and
the hydroelectric developments on the Avon and St. Croix River systems.
Avon River Causeway
Dykelands in West Hants fall into two categories—those protected from tidal flooding in the
traditional fashion by dykes, and those upriver of the Avon River Causeway (approximately
1,214 ha or 3,000 ac) which are protected by the causeway itself, rather than by dykes.
Because of the security offered by the causeway since its construction in 1971, many of the
dykes on marshlands south of the causeway on the Avon and West Branch Avon River were
leveled, allowing farmers to use all of the land up to the river banks. The causeway acts as a
significant constraint in the release of flood water from the Avon River system into the Minas
1 D.B. Cann, Soil Survey of Hants County, p. 8.
2 Cann, p. 11.
3 Cann, p. 12.
4 K. Carroll, Aboiteau Superintendent, NS Agriculture, pers. comm., 2011.
3