Achieving the Cascading Objectives for Inter-Regional Collaboration would create a Watershed Health Legacy in the Georgia Basin
Note to Reader:
Local governments in BC are challenged with the question of how best to move forward with asset management and protection of watershed health in light of two considerations: a changing climate; and community expectations to provide higher levels-of-service at reduced levels-of-cost.
The Winter 2015 issue of Asset Management BC Newsletter includes an article that describes how the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC is championing “sustainable service delivery” to create a “watershed health legacy” in the Georgia Basin. To download a copy, CLICK HERE.
Create a Legacy: Restore Watershed Health in the Built Environment
In 2014, two landmark developments provided local governments with a fresh impetus to do business differently:
- BC’s new Water Sustainability Act, passed in May 2014; and
- Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery: A BC Framework, released in December 2014.
“Accepted ‘standards of practice’ – especially those for engineering, planning and finance – influence the form and function of the Built Environment. Implementing 
green infrastructure, turning the clock back, shifting the ecological baseline, and creating a watershed legacy will ultimately depend on the nature of changes in standards of practice,” states Kim Stephens, Executive Director, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC. His program responsibilities include the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative.
Cascading Objectives
Local governments on the east coast of Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland are ‘learning by doing’ to implement affordable and effective science-based practices to achieve:
- Watershed Health: Protect and/or restore hydrologic integrity
- Resilient Rainwater Management: Mimic the natural water balance
- Sustainable Service Delivery: Integrate natural systems thinking and adaptation to a changing climate into asset management
“Implementing ‘design with nature’ standards of practice at the site scale – so that benefits accumulate and mimic the natural Water Balance at a watershed scale – ultimately means that communities will be more resilient during periods when there is either too much or too little rain,” concludes Kim Stephens.
To Learn More:
To download and read the complete article, click on Watershed Health, Resilient Rainwater Management, and Sustainable Service Delivery: How they are connected?
To read an article posted on the Rainwater Management community-of-interest about turning the clock back, click on Creating the Future in British Columbia: Recognize and Address the “Shifting Baseline”.
