LESSONS FROM THE PAST INFORM THE FUTURE IN METRO VANCOUVER: Go farther together through collaboration
Note to Reader:
In November 2024, the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia released THE SYNOPSIS for the Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver. The Chronicle is a sweeping narrative of the 30-year period from 1994 through 2024. The Chronicle is a layered package comprising four documents: the Chronicle of the Journey, Stories Within the Story, Synopsis and Executive Summary. The target audience for each layer is different.
The Synopsis is the third layer in the cascade. It is oriented to senior managers who have limited time to absorb what they need to know to make informed decisions. The Synopsis is visual and so can easily be skimmed in 20 minutes or less! This extract is from pages S16 through S18.
Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Education Initiative is a Legacy Program
“In 2012, and again in 2015 and 2016, the Partnership for Water Sustainability asked five Regional Boards…Metro Vancouver, Capital Region, Comox Valley, Nanaimo Region and Cowichan Valley…to endorse and support intergovernmental collaboration under the umbrella of the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Education Initiative (IREI), through commitment of staff resources,” stated Kim Stephens, Synopsis author and Partnership Executive Director.
IREI builds on a legacy of “convening for action” in the Georgia Basin
“The IREI is a unique mechanism for peer-based learning among local governments and adds to the legacy of the original Georgia Basin Initiative (GBI). The IREI network facilitates collaboration across scales – provincial, regional and local.”
“When it was launched in 1994, the Georgia Basin Initiative was a call to action by the provincial government of the day. Joan Sawicki says there was trouble in paradise. All communities knew they were under intense pressure and that they had to do something about it.”
“The influence of the Georgia Basin Initiative has rippled through time in profound and lasting ways. Without it, for example, there would be no Partnership for Water Sustainability.”
“The genesis for the IREI was the “convening for action” program under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for BC, launched in 2004. In 2012, the collaboration spotlight shifted from building relationships within a region to building relationships between regions.”
Build greener communities and create a watershed health legacy through Georgia Basin collaboration
The image below illustrates how the Partnership, in presentations to the five regional boards in 2012 and again in 2016, framed the purpose of the IREI
Restore watershed hydrology and re-set the ecological baseline
“Prior to 2012, each IREI partner region had typically established its vision and goals for water and watershed sustainability through a community consultation process. Each region was at a different point of understanding on the watershed health continuum.”
Designed With Nature is a guiding philosophy for green infrastructure
“Ian McHarg, father of GIS, pioneered the concept of ecological planning. He advocated this principle: The shaping of land for human use ought to be based on an understanding of natural process.”
“Ian McHarg is described as the most influential landscape architect of the twentieth century. His Design With Nature vision, more manifesto than scholarly text, has for two decades influenced implementation of the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative.”
“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,” concluded Kim Stephens.
IREI history of success
To Learn More:
Download a copy of the Synopsis of the Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver from 1994 through 2024. released in November 2024. The Synopsis is structured as six sections.
DOWNLOAD A COPY: https://waterbucket.ca/gi/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2024/11/Metro-Van-Chronicle_Synopsis_DRAFT_Nov2024.pdf