CONVENING FOR ACTION: Okanagan Basin Water Board and BC Water & Waste Association co-presented “From Rain to Resource: Managing Stormwater in a Changing Climate” (October 2010)
From Stormwater to Rainwater
“Effective rainwater management is a critical tool for adaptation to climate change – a leading policy concern in British Columbia,” stated Anna Warwick Sears, Executive Director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board.
“The goal of this workshop is to share positive and innovative developments in rainwater management and to discuss how barriers to change are being overcome in communities in B.C. and beyond.”
“The overall objective is to move municipal governments beyond conventional stormwater management, and inspire them to use rainwater as an integrated resource,” added Daisy Foster, Chief Executive Officer of BCWWA. “The Rain to Resource workshop will bring together a wide cross-section of interested and knowledgeable individuals and provide an opportunity for them to share their knowledge and experiences. BCWWA is pleased to partner with the OBWB in this initiative.”
Program Content
Download Final Program – From Rain to Resource Workshop 2010 Workshop and Tradeshow. The majority of the workshop presentations are about case studies featured in Beyond the Guidebook 2010, in particular:
- the experiences of these ‘convening for action’ partners: City of Surrey, District of North Vancouver, City of Courtenay, Capital Regional District, Metro Vancouver; and
- these tools and resources: the Water Balance Model, the Topsoil Primer Set.
“Released in June, Beyond the Guidebook 2010: Implementing a New Culture for Urban Watershed Protection and Restoration in British Columbia demonstrates that the practitioner culture is changing as an outcome of collaboration, partnerships and alignment; and provides local governments with ‘how to’ guidance for developing outcome-oriented urban watershed plans,” stated Ted van der Gulik, Chair of the Inter-Governmental Partnership.
Communication
“To help tell the stories of local governments that are convening for action to manage settlement change in balance with ecology, we established a From Rain to Resource ‘homepage’. We then posted a series of stories on Water Bucket during the August through October period. These preview stories foreshadow what to expect at the workshop,” stated Mike Tanner, Chair of the Water Bucket Website Partnership.
