FLASHBACK TO APRIL 2012: Partnership for Water Sustainability released “Primer on Integrated Rainwater and Groundwater Management for Lands on Vancouver Island and Beyond”

May 6, 2013 - Posted in articles for period 2011 thru 2015, Tools and Resources, Uncategorised, Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia

 

 

Intregrating the Site with the Watershed and Stream

Released in 2008, Living Water Smart, British Columbia’s Water Plan is a call to action to prepare communities for change and do business differently. Actions and targets in Living Water Smart establish expectations as to how land will be developed and water will be used. Now, the Primer on Integrated Rainwater and Groundwater Management for Lands on Vancouver Island and Beyond provides local governments with guidance for implementation of Living Water Smart principles on the ground.

 

City of Parksville Demonstration Application

“Collaboration with the City of Parksville created the opportunity to inform the educational process that is part of the City’s Official Community Plan (OCP) Review. The City is a demonstration application for the Primer. The learning captured in this Primer will also be shared with other local governments on Vancouver Island. Knowledge-sharing will be facilitated through the current Inter-Regional Education Initiative. The Primer is written for expert and non-expert audiences,” reports Craig Wightman, Senior Fisheries Biologist with the BC Conservation Foundation, and a Primer co-author.

“The Primer introduces the issue of the ‘unfunded infrastructure liability’. Viewing the watershed through an asset management lens provides local governments with a driver to require that development practices mimic the Water Balance.”

“Parksville’s OCP Review provided a great opportunity to formally recognize the value and inter-dependence of the City’s small stream and groundwater resources, and their importance to people and the region’s highly diverse fish and wildlife populations.  The term ‘livable community’ can take on new relevance in this process, and ensure Parksville remains a community of choice for residents and visitors alike.”       

 

To Learn More:

To download a copy, click on Primer on Integrated Rainwater & Groundwater Management for Lands on Vancouver Island and Beyond. 

  

Linking Rainfall, the Landscape, Groundwater and Streamflow

Released in April 2012 by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, the Primer introduces building blocks that can inform ‘water-centric’ policy development by BC municipalities. Embedding a science-based understanding in an Official Community Plan (OCP), for example, can make a difference on the ground. Thus, the Primer objectives are three-fold:

• provide insight into the regulatory and educational context for moving from awareness to action in order to protect watershed and stream health in BC;
• explain how introduction of the Rainfall Spectrum concept a decade ago led us to look at rainfall differently in BC;
• foreshadow how pioneer research in the Englishman River watershed in the City of Parksville on Vancouver Island can similarly lead us to look at groundwater differently.

“The federal-provincial Regional Adaptation Collaboratives Program provided funding for Primer development. This Primer is the third in a series of guidance documents released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability since November 2011,” explains Kim Stephens, Partnership Executive Director. “Core concepts presented in these companion documents provide an educational foundation for rainwater management in a watershed context.”

 

Mimic the Water Balance

“The purpose of the Primer is to provide the reader with a science-based understanding of factors that impact on watershed and stream health, either for better or worse. Building blocks in a science-based understanding are:

• Rainfall (precipitation);
• the ability of the landscape to absorb rainfall;
• movement of water through the ground; and
• the resulting flow in streams.”

“These elements are part of a system that we call the Water Balance. Land development short-circuits this system when the land surface is hardened and below-ground flow paths to streams are eliminated. By describing the linkages and connecting dots, the ultimate goal of the Primer is to foster responsible decisions about use and development of land,” continues Kim Stephens.

 

Doing Business Differently in BC

Creating desirable communities and protecting stream health are mutually reinforcing outcomes:

• Living Water Smart is the provincial VISION for sustainable land and water stewardship;
• TOP-DOWN & BOTTOM-UP collaboration between local governments and the stewardship sector is a critical success factor for “getting the local watershed vision right”;
• an over-arching WATERSHED GOAL is to manage the natural environment and built environment as integrated components of a healthy watershed;
• the watershed goal can be achieved by making ‘green choices’ and DESIGNING WITH NATURE to protect the water balance;
• inter-regional KNOWLEDGE-SHARING, collaboration, alignment and consistency will allow everyone to go farther, more efficiently and effectively, with implementation; and
• achieving the desired outcome is contingent on regulators, planners, developers, designers and others embracing SHARED RESPONSIBILITY and aligning their efforts.

“If local governments and others are to be effective over time in creating liveable and desirable communities that also protect stream health, it follows that land development practices must strive to mimic the Water Balance,” emphasizes Kim Stephens.