UniverCity on Burnaby Mountain – from Stormwater Management to RAINwater Management
UniverCity – the Community at Simon Fraser is living up to expectations…the vision for a sustainable community has quickly come to fruition: UniverCity is walkable; provides families with a sense of community in a healthy environment; supports economic development and jobs; and offers a range of housing, commercial, and transportation options.
When UniverCity hosted the third event in Showcasing Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver: The 2007 Series, this provided an opportunity to elaborate on the strategy for reducing the 'hydrologic footprint' of this high density community. David Reid, an original member of the ‘green team’ that developed the environmental component of the UniverCity Development Plan, told this part of the story whjen he delivered a presentation titled HISTORY of a leading application of stormwater management
In 2000, translating high expectations for UniverCity into practical design guidelines meant revisiting accepted drainage engineering practice. David Reid elaborated on the details of the precedent-setting plan for rainwater management and watercourse enhancement ….that set in motion a chain of outcomes that has resulted in British Columbia being recognized internationally as a leader in achieving ‘design with nature’ outcomes in an urban environment.
“UniverCity provided an opportunity to demonstrate how a new, sustainable community can integrate rainwater/stormwater and watercourse management with urban design, starting where the water lands,” observed David Reid.
The high expectations for the project were not just held by the university community. The lands fall within the area of two watershed management pilot projects – the Brunette Basin Plan and the Stoney Creek Plan. These plans established demanding objectives for integrated RAINwater management. To learn more about solving challenges by starting at the source – where the rain lands, please click here.
Posted November 2007