The Story of the 2009 Metro Vancouver Water Balance Model Forum: Living Water Smart and Making Green Choices to Create Liveable Communities and Protect Stream Health
Moving Beyond Pilot Projects
Hosted by the City of Surrey, the program for the Metro Vancouver Water Balance Model Forum was built around the HOW question as it pertains to green infrastructure:
- HOW will the City of Surrey get it built right;
- HOW will a consistent regional approach be achieved in Metro Vancouver?
The Forum was co-sponsored by the Water Balance Model Inter-Governmental Partnership and the Green Infrastructure Partnership, with a goal of moving beyond pilot projects to a watershed-based approach to achieving performance targets for rainwater management and green infrastructure.
The Story of the Forum
The story of the Forum is told in a series of six stories published weekly on the Water Bucket website. These describe the elements of the Forum program, and are consolidated in a stand-alone document. To download a copy, click on The Story of the 2009 Metro Vancouver Water Balance Model Forum.
Downloadable Documents
Leading up to the Forum, a series of downloadable documents were published on Water Bucket. They progressively described the elements of the Forum program in order to establish participant expectations. Briefly:
- On February 2nd, Story #1 titled Living Water Smart and Making Green Choices to Create Liveable Communities and Protect Stream Healthintroduced what will be covered in the morning and afternoon session
- On February 11th, Story #2 titled Making Green Choices: Opportunities for Law and Policy to Effect Change on the Groundintroduced the shared responsibility theme, and is the bridge from the morning to the afternoon.
- On February 18th, Story #3 titled Green Infrastructure in the City of Surrey: “Getting it built right”elaborated on the learning outcomes for the Forum morning session.
- On February 25th, Story #4 titled Making Green Choices: Use the Water Balance Model to Inform Land Development Strategies foreshadowed how regulators and designers can apply the Water Balance Model to facilitate implementation of green infrastructure solutions.
- On March 4th, Story #5 titled Provincial Context: Today’s Expectations are Tomorrow’s Standards for Green Infrastructure elaborated on the provincial and regional context that will inform local actions.
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We envisioned that the Surrey Forum would be a transformational event and a catalyst for action. One of our goals is to implement an educational program in Metro Vancouver that would be modelled on the Vancouver Island Learning Lunch Series,” stated Raymond Fung when he foreshadowed what to expect.
Posted July 2009