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“Implementing change is primarily a people matter, not a technical one. Bridging the gap between interest and practice involves motivating practitioners to engage in ways that provide sufficient meaning to inspire them and lead to action. The desired outcome is implementation of on-the-ground changes in policies, programs, applied research, practitioner education and standards of practice that lead to full integration of land development and water management. In a fully ‘integrated landscape’, water is the unifying element,” stated Erik Karlsen.

The keynote address was a co-presentation by Kim Stephens and Ted van der Gulik of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC. “Licensing 20,000 wells initially seemed daunting when a provincial group met in mid-2015 to brainstorm an approach to this immense task. The team had to solve the challenge of HOW to help groundwater users reliably quantify their annual water licence volumes. Suffice to say, the brainstorming resulted in an Aha Moment and a solution took shape,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

“The Partnership will continue to evolve and deliver program elements developed under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia,” stated Tim Pringle. “The Partnership vision is that water sustainability will be achieved through implementation of green infrastructure policies and practices. How communities in BC get there relies on a change in mind-set. The Partnership mission is to facilitate that change.”

The pioneer work of Richard Horner and Chris May in the 1990s provided a reason and a starting point for revisiting urban hydrology in BC. “So many studies manipulate a single variable out of context with the whole and its many additional variables,” states Horner. “We, on the other hand, investigated whole systems in place, tying together measures of the landscape, stream habitat and aquatic life.”

Over the past decade, the Water Sustainability Action Plan has facilitated cross-pollinating of ideas and approaches in the local government setting. “Everyone learns from stories and the most compelling ones are based on the experience of the champions who are leading implementation of watershed-based solutions,” wrote Richard Boase. “The rate of progress in implementing new ideas or standards of practice generally depends on the willingness of individual champions in local government to push the envelope in applying new approaches.”

“The Rising to the Challenge conference was a milestone event. Because Australian practitioners are at a fork in their journey, they are looking to learn from BC experience. They are curious about our ‘whole systems’ approach to water balance management,” stated Kim Stephens. “I introduced Australians to three ‘big ideas’ that underpin where we are heading in BC, namely: Primacy of Hydrology, Shifting Baseline Syndrome, and Cathedral Thinking. My due diligence in preparing for the keynote address involved interviewing a cross-section of ‘water thought leaders’ from across Australia.”

“Major breakthroughs happen when decision-makers in government work with grass-roots visionaries in the community to create the future desired by all. Collaboration grows from a shared vision about the future and commitment to action. This is the ‘top down and bottom up’ approach,” stated Eric Bonham. “It is about turning the whole game around to ‘design with nature’ as a consistent approach to development and redevelopment, urban infrastructure practices, and protection/restoration of stream and watershed health.”

“A key message is the speed with which scenario analyses and comparisons can now be completed,” stated Jim Dumont. “What previously took weeks can now be done in hours. The significant benefit of the ‘new Water Balance Model’ is the resulting emphasis on strategy and alternative implementation methodologies. The QUALHYMO model is the proven hydrologic calculation engine that will provide consistent delivery of reliable results.”

Communities would benefit from shifting their definitions of community infrastructure to include entire watersheds. “We invited Kim Stephens to be our lead speaker because we’re very interested in the work that he and the Partnership are doing around asset management and sustainable watersheds,” explained the City of Campbell River’s Sara Brodie. She is on the APEGBC Municipal Engineering Division executive. Restoring hydrologic integrity, and thus the water balance, is key to a water-resilient future, emphasized Kim Stephens in his remarks.

“The case study applications built a common understanding of how to achieve runoff-based performance targets for rainwater management and green infrastructure,” stated Rob Conway. “What is unique about our approach is the educational context. Willing owners/developers and their planning/design consultants volunteered to develop and share the case studies. It truly is a collaborative effort.”