Majority of Local Governments in the Lower Mainland are Water Balance Model Partners
Announcement
On the morning of April 7, Metro Vancouver will host the 2011 Water Balance Model Partners Forum. This will be followed by a meeting of the Metro Vancouver Stormwater Interagency Liaison Group (SILG) in the afternoon.
“The majority of local governments in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley are members of the Water Balance Model Partnership. Also, a decade ago the Partnership began as a subgroup of SILG. The Partnership quickly expanded to become a provincial group with municipal representation from four regions: Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island and the Okanagan Valley,” Ted van der Gulik, Partnership Chair, told Premier Gordon Campbell when the Water Balance Model received a Premier’s Award of Excellence in 2009.
Forum Agenda
According to Ted van der Gulik, the Partners Forum is an opportunity for all local governments in the Lower Mainland to learn from each other about implementing green infrastructure, and reflect on what can be accomplished through alignment and collaboration. Those who are curious will learn that:
- An Integrated Stormwater Management Plan(ISMP) is a potentially powerful tool. It can influence other municipal processes for the better. It can generate the blueprint for integrated and coordinated action at a watershed scale.
- The Partners Forum provides a platform for launching an educational program that will support implementation of the ISMP Course Correction in Metro Vancouver and beyond.
To download a copy of the Draft Agenda, click here (or on the image below) and learn about the program content.
ISMP Course Correction
The need for a ‘course correction’ was identified by the Metro Vancouver Liquid Waste Management Reference Panel in its Final Report to the Metro Vancouver Board, released in July 2009: “Re-focus Integrated RAINwater/Stormwater Management Plans on watershed targets and outcomes so that there are clear linkages with the land use planning and development approval process.”
During the period November-December 2010, the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia released a 5-part series about considerations driving a course correction in the way ISMPs are undertaken. Release of the Summary Report for ISMP Course Correction Series followed in February 2011.
To Learn More:
In the weeks preceding the Forum, the Water Balance Model Partnership released a series of articles that foreshadowed the information-transfer that would take place at the Forum. To access these articles, click on Metro Vancouver hosts 2011 Water Balance Model Partners Forum.
Posted March 2011