Green Infrastructure

DESIGN WITH NATURE GOING FORWARD (GRAPHIC): Erik Karlsen’s “integrating matrix” is a foundation piece for EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, which is a pillar for asset management that protects and restores riparian area integrity

March 9, 2023 - Posted in EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, is a BC Strategy for Community Investment in Stream Systems (Natural Commons), Graphics are Communication Tools that Help Audiences Visualize Foundational Concepts

Note to Reader:

The legendary Erik Karlsen was a master at using graphics to explain concepts. In 2015, he created a matrix to explain how to integrate two foundational concepts: Daniel Pauly’s Shifting Baseline Syndrome and Richard Horner and Chris May’s Road Map for Protecting Stream System Integrity. Erik Karlsen envisioned that the “integrating matrix” would be used by local governments as a decision tool. He titled the matrix “Design with Nature” going forward.

Integration of two foundational concepts

In 1995, UBC’s Daniel Pauly wrote a short but impactful article titled the Shifting Baseline Syndrome. This concept is a driver for intergenerational collaboration. Environmental baselines shift when successive generations of planners, engineers, and decision-makers do not have an image in their minds of the recent past. Pauly described how a lack of understanding plays out as a ‘failure to notice change’.

In 1996, the University of Washington’s Richard Horner and Chris May published seminal research that correlated land use changes with the impacts on stream condition. They identified and ranked four limiting factors in order of consequence from an ecological perspective. This ranking is the Road Map for Protecting Stream System Integrity.

We can bend the curve upwards

Erik Karlsen’s “integrating matrix” conceptualizes how local governments can operationalize the learnings from McHarg, Pauly, Horner and May. The desired outcome in applying this knowledge would be to “bend the curve” upwards to restore a desired watershed and stream condition.

The “integrating matrix” is a foundation piece for EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, which is a pillar for asset management that protects and restores riparian area integrity.

Shifting Baseline: from riparian ecosystem to riparian zone

“A stream in a natural condition is supported by a riparian ecosystem. In urban, suburban and rural settings around BC, however, riparian ecosystems have been reduced to riparian zones,” states Kim Stephens, Executive Director, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC.

“A riparian zone is a fragmented portion of the riparian ecosystem in developed areas. Diminution due to fragmentation results in a loss of a riparian network’s ecological services.”

“This has become the norm because the intent of the Riparian Areas Protection Regulation has been compromised over time. This loss is what Daniel Pauly describes as a ‘failure to notice change’.”

“The 2014 investigation and Striking a Balance report by the BC Ombudsperson identified ‘significant gaps between the process the provincial government had established when the Riparian Areas Protection Regulation was enacted and the level of oversight that was actually in place’.”

“Investigative Update: Striking a Balance (2022) states that ‘many of the issues we identified remain as pressing as they were in 2014; there is work ahead to ensure that the systemic issues are fully addressed‘.”

“Erik Karlsen was concerned about the Ombudsperson’s findings. With development of EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, the Partnership honours Erik’s memory and legacy by providing local governments with a methodology, metrics and a path forward to tackle the Riparian Deficit.”

EAP is a BC Strategy for Community Investment in Stream Systems

The Synthesis Report is a distillation of over 1000 pages of case study documentation into a storyline that is conversational and written for a continuum of audiences that includes land use practitioners, asset managers, stream stewards, and local government decision-makers.

To Learn More:

Download and read a copy of the entire Synthesis Report on EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, A B.C. Strategy for Community Investment in Stream Systems (2022), the 4^th in the Beyond the Guidebook series of guidance documents.