DOWNLOAD: 2009 Resilient Cities Conference included a module on the Water Sustainability Action Plan for BC
Note to Reader:
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 Resilient Cities: Urban Strategies for Transition Times in October 2009. The conference was held in Vancouver.
The CANSEE component included a module that showcased the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia.
Showcasing the ‘Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia’
“There is growing national and international interest in how British Columbia has moved from awareness to action in implementing green infrastructure practices that achieve 
water sustainability outcomes,” reported Eva Kras, CANSEE Past-President and author of The Blockage.
“As part of the CANSEE contribution to the Resilient Cities Conference, we included a module on the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia. This created the opportunity for the Action Plan team to elaborate on how ‘green action objectives’ are being achieved in British Columbia.”
“The 4-person presentation team comprised Kim Stephens, Eric Bonham, Mike Tanner and Ted van der Gulik.”
Bridge from Theory to Practice
“My role was narrator. This role entailed setting the scene and connecting the dots between vision, education and tools,” explained Kim Stephens, Executive Director of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC. 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 Waterbucket website, and apply a suite of web-based water management tools to make better decisions.”
To Learn More:
To download and read the complete story, click on 2009 Resilient Cities Conference includes a module on the Water Sustainability Action Plan for BC.
To access a set of stories posted on waterbucket.ca about the Action Plan module, click here.
