Context for Rainwater Management in British Columbia:
Build Greener Communities
Mitigation and adaptation are both necessary and complementary strategies to cope with the climate change challenge. If mitigation is about CARBON, then adaptation is about WATER.
The New Business As Usual
Green infrastructure enables local governments to prepare for and adapt to climate change. This “new business as usual” in British Columbia is driven by:
- a ‘design with nature’ guiding philosophy;
- an outcome-oriented approach to watershed and stream health protection; and
- success on the ground.
British Columbia experience is demonstrating that ‘designing with nature’ is a key element of a strategy for climate change adaptation.
Beyond the Guidebook 2010
The case study experience introduced in Beyond the Guidebook 2010: Implementing a New Culture for Watershed Protection and Restoration in British Columbia shows that a new land ethic is taking root.
Local governments now have the tools and case study experience to ‘design with nature’. Lessons learned by those who are doing it can help those who want to do it.
To Learn More:
To read the complete story posted on the Rainwater Management Community-of-Interest, click on Capitalize on Green Infrastructure Opportunities to ‘Design with Nature’ and download the second in the ‘ISMP Course Correction Series’. This is the second in a series of articles about a 'course correction' for Integrated Stormwater Management Plans (ISMPs).
Also, click on “If mitigation is about CARBON, then adaptation is about WATER”, states John Slater at Resource to Rain Workshop — Adaptation is about responding to the changes that will inevitably occur. Adaptation is at the community level and is therefore about collaboration. Rainwater management is at the heart of designing with nature.
Posted November 2010