Water Sustainability Committee links vision, education and tools in telling its story at 2009 Resilient Cities Conference
Showcasing the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia
“There is growing national and international interest in the British Columbia experience and our lessons learned in moving from talk to action in implementing green infrastructure practices that lead to water sustainability,” explains Kim Stephens, Program Coordinator for the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia.
“For this reason, the Water Sustainability Committee was asked to provide a knowledge-transfer module at Resilient Cities: Urban Strategies for Transition Times in October 2009. This provided us with a platform to tell our story.”
“We had a 4-person presentation team. My role was narrator. This role entailed setting the scene and connecting the dots between vision, education and tools. After that, Eric Bonham, Mike Tanner and Ted van der Gulik elaborated on each of these three elements of the story.”
“There is a reason why we told our story in this sequence. To initiate changes so that we do business differently requires that vision, education and tools be in alignment. On Vancouver Island we are demonstrating how to set the vision based upon community values, support the vision with information and education via the Water Bucket website, and apply a suite of web-based water management tools to make better decisions.”
Link to You Tube Video
A video clip has been uploaded to YouTube to provide a record and capture the flavour of how Kim Stephens introduced the storyline for the module organized by the Water Sustainability Committee at the Resilient Cities Conference. To watch the video, click here.
To download the set of PowerPoint slides that accompany the YouTube video, click on Getting Ahead of the Wave: Achieving Settlement in Balance with Ecology on Vancouver Island
About the Water Sustainability Committee:
The Water Sustainability Committee, a roundtable representing government and non-government organizations, is providing leadership, facilitation and organizational services for delivery of program elements under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan.
The organizations represented on the Water Sustainability Committee have a specific interest or mission in implementing the Water Sustainability Action Plan. The Water Sustainability Committee is a committee of the British Columbia Water & Waste Association (BCWWA).
About the Resilient Cities Conference
Sustainability imperatives, the call for climate action, and the pressure for new approaches in almost every urban system have North American cities scrambling to manage the shift toward ecological practices and greater resilience.
To provide solutions to these challenges, three organizations – the Center for Urban Innovation, Smart Growth BC,and the Canadian Society of Ecological Economics (CANSEE) – combined forces to co-host the Resilient Cities Conference.
