Convening for Action in British Columbia

METRO VANCOUVER LEGACY RESEARCH; BENCHMARK FOR WATERSHED HEALTH: “By the late 1990s, it was clear that engineering solutions alone would not result in good stormwater management and environmental protection, nor address regulatory infraction risk,” stated Robert Hicks, a career engineer-planner in local government in the Metro Vancouver region

Note to Reader:

Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. Storylines accommodate a range of reader attention spans. Stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway, Editor’s Perspective, and the Story Behind the Story (reproduced below) .

The edition published on April 8, 2025 featured Tim Pringle and Robert Hicks to support an announcement that the Partnership and the Metro Vancouver Regional District are co-funding the next evolution of EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process. Metro Vancouver is coming full circle to build on seminal research that it undertook in the late 1990s to develop a classification system for watershed health. EAP adds financial dimension for asset management purposes.

Benchmark for comparison, then versus now

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Urban streams are municipal assets; they supply ecological services

“The story behind the story is structured in two parts. The historical context is first. Robert Hicks explains how Metro Vancouver tapped into the expertise of Richard Horner when the science was hot off the presses. Robert is a career engineer-planner in local government,” stated Kim Stephens, Waterbucket eNews editor and Executive Director with the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC.

“EAP as a predictive tool for land use planners is the second part. Tim Pringle describes the road map for evolving EAP. With 22 demonstration applications completed and/or in progress, the next step is to develop the rules of thumb for quantifying the financial implications of increased development density.”

“Tim Pringle is a director and past president of the Partnership for Water Sustainability. He is also Adjunct Faculty with the Master of Community Planning Department at Vancouver Island University.”

PART ONE – HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Assessment of Stream Health in Metro Vancouver Region

“In the early 1990s, a group of Puget Sound local governments initiated a university-based research centre, secured seed funding for it, and then framed eight key questions for investigation.”

“His doctoral work is the foundation that the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC has been building on for the past three decades by evolving the Twin Pillars of Stream Integrity, namely Water Balance Accounting and Ecological Accounting.”

Genesis for cross-border collaboration

“In 1997, Metro Vancouver established an interagency Stormwater Management Technical Advisory Task Group,” states Robert Hicks, who was staff support for the group

“The 1992 Land Development Guidelines were about doing business differently. It was a best attempt at the time. DFO realized that the status quo was not working. This is why the municipalities were feeling the pressure to change course when the interagency group was established.”

Puget Sound research correlated land use changes with impacts on streams

“So many studies manipulate a single variable out of context with the whole and its many additional variables. We, on the other hand, investigated whole systems in place, tying together measures of the landscape, stream habitat, and aquatic life,” explained Richard Horner in a 2014 conversation.

For two decades, Dr. Chris May had a leadership position in Washington State local government – first with the City of Seattle and then with Kitsap County. The latter was his living laboratory. Because he was Director of the Surface & Stormwater Division, Chis May could put science into practice.

“Working at multiple scales is a must to restore urban streams. You have to go back and address the impacts of legacy development. To move the needle, communities must restore riparian areas,” explained Chris May in a 2023 interview about the Road Map for System Integrity

Metro Vancouver Watershed Health Rating System validated Puget Sound research findings

“We built on Puget Sound research and developed a watershed health rating system for our region. A trend projection from 1996 to 2036 demonstrated how the status quo would lead to a further region-wide decline in stream health,” continued Robert Hicks in a 2024 interview about the reasons Why Watersheds are at Heightened Risk

“When we showed the picture of the Riparian Forest Integrity index to the Board members, they agreed that things had to change. Things will get worse if we do not change our ways,”

PART TWO – NEXT EVOLUTION OF EAP: A predictive tool for use by land planners

“With hindsight, I can say that Metro was ahead of its time and got it right with the RFI index. That early leadership has provided the region with a foundation and a springboard for success in 2025 and beyond,” emphasizes Tim Pringle.

“In hindsight, the RFI idea dropped off the radar screen because the timing was not yet right for it and all the energy was going into the Water Balance Pillar. A generation later, we are resurrecting RFI and adding the EAP dimension to operationalize the Ecological Accounting Pillar.”

“Both the Metro research in the late 1990s and the current EAP research are spatial analyses. The EAP process allows local governments to transcend the numbers and explore the financial impact of land development choices. And it is also about solutions.”

“Metro got it right in the 1990s. By revisiting the 1999 research through the EAP lens, the region is poised to move to a restored and renewed leadership position.”

EAP lens encompasses both the asset management and land planning perspectives

“Planners have a spatial way of looking at land use. So, I imagine that they would like to have a means of understanding a stream from a spatial point of view…what is being measured, what are the metrics for doing that measurement, how do you use it. It has to be that basic.”

“EAP deals with parcels which is as spatial as you can get. The Metro research in the late 1990s was also a spatial analysis. Metro used the science and applied the basics related to loss of riparian and woodland areas (ecosystems) and intrusion of impervious cover in developed areas abutting streams,”

EAP springboard to a regional scale to make the financial case for action in at-risk watersheds

“We have a two-step plan. We have brought the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University into the EAP Partnership. This expands the pool of graduate students to do EAP theses.”

“In 2026, as Step Two, a master’s thesis will create a predictive tool to quantify the financial implications of increased development density and provincial housing policies regarding the Riparian Deficit.”

“We are moving EAP from a primary emphasis on Asset Management to use by planners for spatial analysis related to streams and trees. As we evolve EAP through more projects, and use Sam’s thesis as the springboard, we will be able to say here is the utility for planners and it is based on these rules of thumb,” concludes Tim Pringle.

To Learn More:

To read the complete 3-party story, download a copy of the Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Urban streams are municipal assets; they supply ecological services.

DOWNLOAD A COPY: https://waterbucket.ca/wcp/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/03/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_Tim-Pringle-and-Metro-Vancouver-EAP-project_2025.pdf