waterbucket.ca: Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC’s website showcases water-centric innovation and leadership
Note to Reader:
Sitelines magazine is a publication of the British Columbia Society of Landscape Architects (BCSLA). Published bi-monthly, BCSLA has a longstanding practice of inviting partner organizations to take on a co-editor role and provide the content for an issue featuring the partner.
The June 2016 issue featured the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC. This allowed the Partnership to showcase initiatives and tools. Reproduced below is the article written by Mike Tanner, Chair of the waterbucket.ca website.
Storytelling Leads to Understanding
“Launched in 2005, the waterbucket.ca website is a ‘destination location’ for resources on green infrastructure and water sustainability in BC,” wrote Mike Tanner. “The Partnership for Water Sustainability is recording and showcasing the history of land and water champions even as they are creating it. Written in a magazine style, waterbucket.ca weaves quotable quotes and images into storylines that engage readers.”
“The genesis for waterbucket.ca was an action item arising from a consultation workshop hosted by the Province in November 2003, and was the first deliverable flowing from the Water Sustainability Action Plan. waterbucket.ca was co-funded by federal and provincial ministries, regional governments, BC Hydro and BC Gas.”
To Learn More:
Download In this issue, the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC presents WATER BALANCE PATHWAY TO A WATER-RESILIENT FUTURE, June 2016, to read the complete set of 9 articles published in Sitelines Magazine.
Communities-of-Interest
“Water Sustainability in BC believes that we will see improved standards in all aspects of land development and water resource management. waterbucket.ca comprises a family of communities-of-interest that provide a ready-made platform for advancing a “design with nature” approach to community development.”
“waterbucket.ca is providing reasons to have the conversation about ‘why change’. The resulting awareness of need will help us obtain the mandate to implement watershed-based land use planning.”
– Marvin Kamenz, Municipal Planner, Town of Comox
An International Reach
“Since 2008, some 300,000 visitors have accessed stories, resources and tools that the website offers. This is remarkable considering that waterbucket.ca was developed for a BC audience of elected officials, government agencies and utility managers. The site has attracted tens of thousands of visitors from across Canada and from cities and countries around the globe: 5000-plus cities in 180 countries. Interestingly, 60% of the audience is in the age range 18 to 34.”
A Measure of Influence
“A decade ago, the Partnership pioneered a hierarchy of ‘green’ vocabulary that included this transformational definition: Water Sustainability is achieved through Green Infrastructure practices that reflect a full and proper understanding of the relationship between land and water. A measure of the global influence of waterbucket.ca is that this definition is now widely accepted as conventional wisdom.”
A Race to the Top
“Communication is vital. Storytelling leads to understanding about why we need to do business differently; and this is promoting completion and a race to the top. waterbucket.ca is the technical voice that is getting the technical story out in a consistent way. It provides reasons to have conversations about ‘why change’.”
