Trees can intercept upwards of 50% of the rain that falls each year on a watershed. Removing the tree cover means that more and more rainfall is converted into runoff volume. “One of our research interests was to determine the effectiveness of a single taken at premiers awards dinnertree versus that for a cluster of trees,” explained Richard Boase.
“Beyond the Guidebook 2010 describes how water sustainability can and will be achieved through implementation of green infrastructure policies and practices. Getting there relies on a change in mind-set,” stated John Finnie. “When the right people with the right knowledge are involved at the right time to apply informed judgment in a collaborative process, the outcome-oriented approach saves time and money.”
“OCEP promotes a ‘water-centric’ approach to community planning and development. The program comprises inter-connected elements that give local governments and practitioners the tools and experience to better manage land and water resources,” stated Mike Tanner.
“The lecture was an opportunity to provide students with a window into the local goverment setting; and elaborate on what it takes to build consensus and create lasting change on the ground. I wanted to impart is what it takes to get buy-in from local government and the community for an outcome-oriented vision,” stated Kim Stephens.
“The WAM Discussion Paper appears to miss the opportunity for an integrated watershed management approach, rather focusing on water management and allocation. CAVI’s experience suggests that the integration of land use and water management at the regional or local level is germane to successfully reforming the Water Act,’ wrote John Finnie.
“We are using the slogan The New Business As Usual to convey the message that, for change to really occur, practices that until now have been viewed as the exception must become the norm moving forward. We have to build regulatory models and develop models of practice and expertise to support The New Business As Usual”, stated Dale Wall.
The key principle is that settlement and ecology are equal values and they must be as much in balance as possible for wellbeing of human and natural systems. “If we were in fact measuring ecological values, there would be more ‘weights’ (reliable data) on the ecology side of the balance scale; thus leading to more informed conclusions and hence different decisions,” stated Tim Pringle.
“The mandate of the Ministry of Community Development is to foster partnerships, collaboration, innovation and integration through the program elements that comprise the Green Communities Project. The goal is to build
capacity that will result in sustainable, healthy and vibrant communities,” stated Karen Rothe.
“We have emphasized the connections surrounding ‘why we do it’ – watershed health and all that entails (quantity and quality) and the need for drainage actions to be integrated with all of the other policy and actions, to truly be effective – that is, thinking and integrating regionally down to the site scale”, stated Susan Rutherford.
“We wanted to explore a collaborative approach that we believed would help local governments make informed land development decisions that meet multiple objectives. The idea was an outcome of the Green Infrastructure Leadership Forum that CAVI and the Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities co-hosted in December 2007,” stated John Finnie.
