DOWNLOAD A COPY: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: How We Transform the Land – Intergenerational Vision to Change Standards of Practice” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in February 2022
Note to Reader:
Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the vision for Living Water Smart in British Columbia to build greener communities and adapt to a changing climate. The theme for the edition published on February 22, 2022 was intergenerational change as illustrated by a “flashback story” about British Columbia’s Green Infrastructure Partnership.
How do we create liveable communities and protect stream health?
There is a saying, look back to move forward. When each generation of practitioners understands and cares about the oral history of green infrastructure in a Living Water Smart context, then successive generations of practitioners are more likely to select the right path forward at each generational inflection point.
Intergenerational sharing, and the learning from experience that goes with it, is a work in progress. How We Transform the Land – Intergenerational Vision to Change Standards of Practice is a legacy document in the Living Water Smart in British Columbia Series. It provides the reader with a window into one dimension of the building blocks process that guides the work of the Partnership for Water Sustainability.
The storyline for this legacy document is structured in four parts:
Part 1 is an essay by Lois Jackson, former Mayor of the City of Delta. Her reflections on what she has observed and experienced over five decades are insightful. Her reflections explain why she was receptive to an overture from the Green Infrastructure Partnership in 2006 when she was in a position of leadership and authority as Chair, Metro Vancouver Regional Board.
Part 2 is the “story behind the story” of the players who were in the right place at the right time in 2003, seized the moment to form the Green Infrastructure Partnership, and developed the “Design with Nature” framework for integrating across infrastructure systems.
Part 3 describes building blocks in a collaborative and consultative process that secured high-level support from elected representatives for a “convening for action” vision to change the way that communities use and develop land by designing with nature.
Part 4 foreshadows how early successes in the Metro Vancouver region were replicated and then built upon by the CAVI-Convening for Action on Vancouver Island initiative, beginning in 2007. Under the banner of Living Water Smart, BC’s Water Plan, this work-in-progress continues to this day. It is a building blocks process.
To Learn More:
To read the complete story published on February 22nd 2022, download a PDF copy of Living Water Smart in British Columbia: How We Transform the Land – Intergenerational Vision to Change Standards of Practice.
