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The Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia (the Partnership) is the hub for a “convening for action” network in the local government setting, is responsible for delivering the Water Sustainability Action Plan program through partnerships and collaboration, and embraces a vision for shared responsibility where all the players align their efforts for the greater common good. To learn about the Partnership’s genesis and history, visit About Us.
The Partnership plays a bridging role between provincial and local governments, and between local governments and the stewardship sector; and is the steward for Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia, a provincial guidance document released in 2002.
Under the Action Plan umbrella, the Partnership collaborates with government and others to develop methodologies, tools and resources to support implementation of the Whole-System, Water Balance Approach to land use, infrastructure servicing and asset management.
About the Water Sustainability Action Plan
Released by the provincial government in February 2004, the Water Sustainability Action Plan provides a partnership umbrella for advancing on-the-ground initiatives in the local government setting.
The Action Plan is nested within Living Water Smart, British Columbia’s Water Plan. Released in 2008, Living Water Smart was the provincial government’s call to action, and to this day transcends governments.
In the early years, initiatives were inspired by and built on the conceptual foundation provided by A Water Conservation Strategy for British Columbia, released in 1998. Ian McHarg’s “Design With Nature” vision has influenced Action Plan implementation. The desired outcome is to achieve settlement, economy and ecology in balance.
"Thirteen local governments in five sub-regions of the Georgia Basin / Salish Sea Bioregion participated in the EAP program. The sequencing of the 9 case studies proved consequential and sometimes game changing. While the methodology and metrics are universal, each situation is unique. Understanding what each partner needed as an outcome from the project became a critical consideration in the building blocks process. EAP evolved as one big idea led to the next one. The 19 big ideas are transformative in their implications for why and how local governments would implement Sustainable Drainage Service ...
"The Langley Ecological Services Initiative is about compensating rural parcel owners who are willing to set aside areas of their land to protect and/or enhance riparian and woodland assets. The Township posed the question: Is ‘payment for ecological services’ part of an Asset Management Strategy? The Township turned to EAP for a method to find the financial value as well as the worth of these streamside assets. This provides the Township and the community with a defensible asset management approach that is about the asset that will be tied up for the ecological purposes,” ...
John Henneberry's pioneering work serves as validation of how EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, looks at streams and water assets as a system. His eclecticism produced real insights into the operation of land and property markets, enabling all involved to see things more clearly and differently. “An industry has developed that values different aspects of nature in different ways. The sum of these parts is far short of the whole and does not capture the interconnectedness and holism of nature," stated John ...
"Everyone learns from stories and storytelling. We typically feature 'convening for action' champions who build on knowledge, experience and wisdom to advance Green Infrastructure solutions that achieve Water Sustainability outcomes. We shine our spotlight on the 'story behind the story' because we observe that is what engages and inspires readers. Through the stories that we share, we underline that context and history do matter. The voices of experience tell us that progress is measured in terms of decades, not ...
"The Water Balance Methodology gave communities a path forward to tackle changes in watershed hydrology at the source. When the Guidebook was released, the capability to set targets gave the steering committee the confidence to be bold and state: land development and watershed protection can be compatible. In 2002, this statement represented a radical shift in thinking. It became known as 'the Guidebook premise'. We were hopeful that all the players would embrace shared responsibility and communities would move from stopgap remediation to long-term restoration of properly functioning streams. We are not there yet," ...
The range of issues John Henneberry (1952-2021) tackled was formidable. He worked alongside botanists, hydrologists, psychologists as well as economists, political scientists, geographers, planners and landscape architects, impressing all colleagues with his keenness to work with them and to grasp debates in other disciplines. He was especially good at motivating colleagues and bringing them together to work on socially relevant research. His approach was an inspiration to all. It was also why John was a great teacher and much admired by all his ...
"It took a building blocks process to bridge from the starting point --- how EAP looks at the 'stream as a whole-system' (rather than as an amorphous 'natural asset') --- to reach the destination, which is a methodology plus meaningful metrics for measuring the Riparian Deficit, the environmental equivalent of the Infrastructure Liability (Deficit) for constructed assets; and establishing budgets for Maintenance and Management," stated Tim ...
“A long career provides perspective. In my five decades as water resource planner and engineer, there are three years that really stand out in British Columbia when the topic is water conservation. After what in respect was a benign half-century, 1987 was BC's first wake up call. The drought was unprecedented in living memory. But it was 2003 that truly was what we call 'the teachable year.' This really got the attention of British Columbians that the climate was indeed changing. In 2015, the West Coast of North America crossed an invisible threshold ...
Gretchen Daily has spent more than 30 years developing the scientific underpinnings of natural capital and is the co-founder of the Natural Capital Project. “For decades people have been noting the shortcomings of GDP, but politically it’s always been too fraught to remedy. It’s time to deploy something new,” stated Gretchen Daily. The idea of Gross Ecosystem Product is, in many ways, a culmination of much of Daily’s work. Along with others, she has lobbied the United Nations to make it an official metric. ...
“The power of the BC Landscape Water Calculator is that it is linked to a provincial 500 metre gridded climate dataset that was built for the Agricultural Water Demand Model. This is what establishes the allowable water budget for each and every property in British Columbia. The allowable water budget is a real number. It is based on average climate data for the period 2000 through 2010 for the active growing season. This establishes a location-specific performance target for landscape design. Users then test various combinations of plant types and irrigation systems to determine ...
