DESIGN WITH NATURE TO CREATE LIVEABLE COMMUNITIES AND PROTECT STREAM HEALTH: “By 2010, we were beyond the innovation stage. The prevailing attitude was let’s get it done. We were action-oriented,” stated Ray Fung, a retired Director of Engineering in local government, and former Chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership
Note to Reader:
Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. The edition published on May 14, 2024 featured Ray Fung, a Past-Chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership in British Columbia. In the 2000s, the Green Infrastructure Partnership played a prominent role in leading changes in local government attitudes in the Metro Vancouver region. Between 1996 and 2020, Ray Fung sat at several local government regional tables in Metro Vancouver. This lived experience provides context for his reflections.
Green Infrastructure Innovation in BC
When one thinks of the issues we face today in BC…weather extremes, drying rivers, degraded streams, frequent wildfires, population growth, housing affordability…they are no different than they were 20 years ago. They are just more complex and more urgent.
When a situation is dire, turning it around fairly quickly requires deep knowledge plus trust. This is the context for featuring Ray Fung and sharing his story about the Green Infrastructure Partnership.
His experience as a champion in the vanguard of change informs his reflections on green infrastructure innovation and the journey in the Metro Vancouver region. This lived experience explains his belief in the power and potential of storytelling to motivate and inspire a new generation of champions.
“Never before has there been such a need for the knowledge keepers and storytellers,” Ray Fung emphasizes when he talks about effectiveness in tackling current issues being dependent on deep knowledge and trust.
Something happened and the Metro Vancouver region lost momentum after 2010
In the 2000s, the Green Infrastructure Partnership played a prominent role in leading changes in local government attitudes in the Metro Vancouver region. This influence cascaded from elected representative at Municipal Council and Regional Board tables to practitioners in the trenches.
“How do you judge that time with the advantage of hindsight? It is always a confluence of different things. Certainly, there was a specific confluence of individuals who were around the table. We had all been colleagues for a while and knew each other,” states Ray Fung.
“Also, at that time regionally, it was the beginnings of the ISMP process, which is the acronym for Integrated Stormwater Management Plans. So, we were all trying to figure out what the ISMP was. And how it was different from a traditional Master Drainage Plan or Stormwater Management Plan.”
EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE / CONTEXT FOR BUSY READER
“A confluence of events and circumstances brought a mix of key players together in 2003. It was a teachable year because of the impact of drought, forest fires and floods on public consciousness,” stated Kim Stephens, Waterbucket eNews Editor and Partnership Executive Director.
“This was a once in a generation reachable moment because minds were open and receptive to the message, we must do better.”
“Between 1996 and 2020, Ray Fung sat at several local government regional tables in Metro Vancouver. During this period, he followed in the footsteps of Chuck Gale and Paul Ham and served as chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership from 2008 until 2010.
When the right people are in the right place at the right time…
When the right people are in the right place at the right time…
“Without the vision and initial leadership provided by Chuck Gale, there would have been no Green Infrastructure Partnership. It is that simple. Relationships are key too.”
“In the 1990s, Chuck Gale was a mentor for both Ray Fung and me. Those two had a history of intergovernmental collaboration with Dale Wall, then an Assistant Deputy Minister.”
“As a City Engineer for three Metro Vancouver municipalities over the course of his career, Chuck Gale was known by many as “Mr. Sustainability”. He was an early adopter and a leading voice in the municipal engineering community. He was the driving force behind formation of the Green Infrastructure Partnership.”
“He was also Chair of the Master Municipal Construction Documents Association (MMCD) from its inception in 1995 until he retired from local government in 2004. He wore his MMCD hat as founding chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership.”
Design With Nature: call to action to walk the talk for sustainable community design
“Chuck was standing at the back of the room as I co-presented “Design With Nature” at the 2003 Annual Convention of the Union of BC Municipalities. It caught my attention that he was beaming,” continued Kim Stephens.
“Chuck rushed up to me afterwards and said, we must talk about how to move this idea forward. The stars were aligning. Ray Fung had succeeded me as Chair of the BC Water Sustainability Committee. He had proposed that “green infrastructure” be a priority under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for BC.”
“Within a few months, a steering committee was in place and the Green Infrastructure Partnership was a core element of the Action Plan when it was released in February 2004. The rest is history, as they say!”
Peer-based learning builds practitioner confidence to innovate
“The mechanism employed by the Green Infrastructure Partnership for facilitating change in the Metro Vancouver region was peer-based learning combined with a top-down and bottom-up approach. This built confidence to innovate.”
“For high-level context about the Georgia Basin Initiative as a driver, the curious reader is reminded to read previous stories featuring former cabinet minister Joan Sawicki and Dale Wall, a former deputy minister of municipal affairs.”
“The three stories are interconnected and cascading, reveal layers of insightful detail, and illustrate how the rich legacy of the Georgia Basin Initiative continues to ripple through time,” concluded Kim Stephens.
STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Green infrastructure innovation in the Metro Vancouver region – extracts from a conversation with Ray Fung
“When we brought four groups together in 2003 and founded the Green Infrastructure Partnership, the term green infrastructure was not in the local government lexicon, whether in BC or beyond. Chuck Gale brought instant credibility as chair because of his stature among local governments and with the Province,” recalls Ray Fung.
“It was 2005 when the nascent Green Infrastructure Partnership broadened the context for local government innovation. We framed a Design With Nature approach to community development in terms of six objectives that would reduce risk and liability.”
“These objectives embrace yet transcend engineered infrastructure to provide a comprehensive view. It is a systems lens that stands the test of time.”
“When we refer to designing with nature, we are borrowing from Ian McHarg and the title of his 1969 book. We are consistent with what McHarg intended in terms of ecological planning and letting the landscape inform development.”
Reimagining green infrastructure within an integrated system
“Designing with nature captures the essence of climate change adaptation. Adaptation is about responding to the changes that will inevitably occur. Adaptation is at the community level and is therefore about collaboration.”
“We essentially adapted Smart Growth principles, albeit in action-oriented soundbites, to create a new mind-map with the six objectives. We introduced it at the green infrastructure consultation workshop in 2005.”
“Hosted by the City of Surrey, the workshop launched our Convening for Action in Metro Vancouver program. It truly was a dynamic and inspirational event. That is when we first realized the power and impact of storytelling.”
The motivational power of peer-based learning and celebrating successes
“The 2005 consultation workshop influenced everything that followed, including on Vancouver Island,” continues Ray Fung. “The energy in the room inspired a complete revamping of the GIP approach to creating an environment for accelerated implementation of green infrastructure.”
“We went into the workshop with a work plan for a Model Subdivision Bylaw and green infrastructure standards for British Columbia. It was clear, however, that practitioners did not need another guidance document that would go on a shelf.”
“Rather, they needed to network and learn from each other. So, we tore up our work plan and proceeded in a radically different direction. We created settings and opportunities for storytelling.”
“We witnessed the motivational power of celebrating successes. We also recognized the need to get the story out about the leadership being shown by local governments. Our goal was to share experience and lessons learned as an outcome of designing with nature.”
“That 2000s period was marked by experimentation in terms of the actual techniques themselves for designing with nature. And that 2005 workshop led directly into the Showcasing Green Infrastructure Innovation Series from 2006 through 2008 so that we could learn from each other.”
Comparison with the state-of-practice in North America
“At the time, we did not realize how far in front and ahead of our time we were with our Green Infrastructure Partnership world view. This would not become clear until almost two decades later,” states Ray Fung.
A grain of systems thinking
The report by the Cary Institute is the first systematic review of the use and definition of the green infrastructure concept in local government plans in the United States. The findings are applicable to Canada. Lead author Dr. Zbigniew Grabowski explained their findings this way:
“Green infrastructure is broadly understood to be a good thing, but many city plans lack a clear definition of what it actually is. Hydrological definitions dominate. This narrow view can cause cities to miss out on vital social and ecological services that more integrative green infrastructure can provide.”
The authors had a “moment of realization”, as they described it, which inspired them to develop a systems-oriented definition that they hoped would guide future research and help cities. Amazingly, their definition echoes the Design With Nature framing by BC’s Green Infrastructure Partnership in 2005!
Lost opportunities for more expansive benefits
The researchers identified a total of 153 unique definitions, indicating that green infrastructure means different things to city planners across the United States. They found that many plans fail to explicitly define green infrastructure. When they do, they tend to focus on stormwater management.
“How green infrastructure is defined guides the types of projects that local governments implement, with enduring impacts to people and the urban environment,” said Dr. Steward Pickett, Distinguished Senior Scientist and co-author.
After 2010, everything got stuck
“By 2010, we were beyond the innovation stage,” continues Ray Fung. “The prevailing attitude was let’s get it done. We were action-oriented. And then something happened. We just seemed to lose momentum in the 2010s. With the benefit of hindsight, others have made the same observation.”
“We got bogged down in the implementation plan. We just talked about the burden on local governments from all the capital items that were arising from the completion of ISMPs. Coincidentally, this was just as the region’s needs became dominated by transportation, transit, active transportation and cycling.”
“Is that the reason why everything just slowed to a grind? After all this new, exciting policy stuff, the challenge became how to implement green infrastructure that reduced risk and liability. That never really got solved.”
Knowing what we know now, learn from and build on past experience
“If you are talking about learnings, so what is the organizational learning? I would frame it this way. When we were trying to do stuff, we did not build in robust enough processes that would survive changes in personnel.”
“It is human nature to revisit things when you are new. Can we not create movement on something that simply builds on what people in the past have done? Essentially handing off the baton without us having to hit re-set every 5 years?”
“In the 2020s and going forward from now, and for those in local government, what does it look like for them? Never before has there been such a need for the knowledge keepers and storytellers.”
“In that regard, we can learn from the Indigenous peoples of BC, who hold a spiritual experience of water that goes beyond technical knowledge of how to manage the resource,” concludes Ray Fung.
Living Water Smart in British Columbia Series
To download a copy of the foregoing resource as a PDF document for your records and/or sharing, click on Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Green Infrastructure Innovation in the Metro Vancouver region.
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