ASSET MANAGEMENT CONTINUUM POINTS THE WAY TO EAP, THE ECOLOGICAL ACCOUNTING PROCESS: “It is all about the service. Basically, well-maintained infrastructure assets are worthless IF they do not provide a service. Also, for any asset management approach to be successful, it must not focus on the infrastructure asset by itself,” stated Guy Felio, infrastructure management and resilience specialist, in his keynote address at the 2017 Asset Management BC Annual Conference
Note to Reader:
In British Columbia, the core document for asset management for local governments is Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery: A BC Framework. It provides the basis for the entire asset management process for local governments to follow. Funding agencies, as part of funding applications, request communities to identify where they are within the asset management process using the framework.
Implementation of asset management along with the associated evolution of local government thinking is a continuous process, not a discrete task. A way was needed a way to illustrate this diagrammatically, and thus communicate, what the journey by a local government to the eventual Sustainable Service Delivery destination would look like. This led to the concept of a continuum.
Asset Management Continuum points the way to EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process
“The Partnership for Water Sustainability brings a whole-system perspective to the unfunded infrastructure funding gap and liability issue that is associated with drainage and creek systems,” stated Kim Stephens, Executive Director. “As Glen Brown, founding Chair of Asset Management BC, stated at the Partnership’s 2015 Annual Water Sustainability Workshop,:
‘The ultimate vision for Sustainability Service Delivery is that communities would manage natural assets in the same way that they manage their engineered assets’.”
“The 2015 workshop was the forum where Glen Brown introduced the Asset Management Continuum to illustrate steps in the Sustainable Service Delivery journey. Over the years, we have evolved the graphic to improve the visual presentation. However, the basic information remains the same. In other words, the concept is standing the test of time.”
“Most importantly from the drainage service perspective, the Asset Management Continuum points the way to EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process. EAP brings a whole-system approach to an understanding of drainage service realities. EAP implementation depends on decision-makers understanding that a municipal drainage service has two interconnected components – one is the constructed infrastructure and the other is the stream system.”
EAP is a Land Use Perspective
“The essence of EAP is expressed as follows: What is the environment that supports the package of ecological services? This refers to the combined range of uses desired and supported by the community, namely – drainage, habitat, recreation, and enjoyment of property. This is a land use perspective,” continued Tim Pringle, EAP Chair.
“The strength of EAP is in how we look at and value streams as systems and as a land use. A stream corridor is a land use because it satisfies two criteria: it is defined in the Riparian Areas Protection Regulations Act, and it has a financial value.”
“EAP uses BC Assessment parcel data to find the Natural Capital Asset values of streams. Parcel data are accurate, recent, and reflect the motivations of buyers and sellers over time. This means parcel values include social, ecological, and financial trend information.”
To Learn More:
To read the complete story, download a PDF copy of “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Asset Management Continuum for Sustainable Service Delivery”.
