ARTICLE: “Vancouver’s Got the Green Infrastructure Blues” (Asparagus Magazine, 2025)
Note to Reader:
Pamela Swanigan is a writer, editor, and “biophiliac” based in Vancouver who explores sustainability, science, and nature. She has a PhD focusing on biophilia and sociobiology in children’s literature and has written for publications including The Toronto Star and Vancouver Magazine. Her article for Asparagus Magazine about green infrastructure in the Metro Vancouver region is a finalist for the Canadian Online Publishing Awards – Best Cover Story/Feature.
Pamela Swanigan’s article critiques Metro Vancouver’s slow progress on nature-based solutions (like rain gardens, bioswales, daylighted streams) for managing rainwater runoff, highlighting a gap between ambitious green plans and reality, despite the region’s potential for lush green infrastructure and strong urban forest, and calling for better implementation to tackle climate impacts.
Vancouver’s Got the Green Infrastructure Blues
“Gaps between vision and reality are, of course, standard in politics. What makes this one frustrating to water-sustainability experts is how close to success the green infrastructure push came before it got derailed,” stated Pamela Swanigan.
“Through decades of effort by politicians, civil servants, advocates, and experts, planning had become policy, and policy had started to become practice. Now the question is whether the high profile of floods, droughts, and population growth will put green infrastructure back in the spotlight—and, if so, whether the decision-makers within Metro Vancouver’s municipalities will correct course.”
Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation
The lead interview in the article is with Kim Stephens, Executive Director of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia. He is the author of the 700-page Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver.
“Stephens believes that the initial burgeoning of Metro Vancouver’s green-infrastructure movement arose from the combination of committed politicians and public zeitgeist,” wrote Pamela Swanigan.
To Learn More:
To read the complete article in Asparagus Magazine, click on this link to Vancouver’s Got the Green Infrastructure Blues.
The article features other individuals involved in Metro Vancouver’s green infrastructure and water sustainability efforts, including rain garden advocate Deborah Jones, engineer Melina Scholefield, Green Roof Infrastructure Network Chair Christine Thuring, former Delta mayor Lois Jackson, former Delta utilities manager Hugh Fraser, and Vancouver City Councillor Adriane Carr.
These individuals discuss various aspects of green infrastructure, from rain garden initiatives and regulatory obstacles to professional liability concerns and policy development.
