Green Infrastructure

“Commencing with a launch announcement by the BC Minister of Environment in 2005, this community-of-practice has served an important function as the home for green infrastructure in British Columbia. Originally created to support the work of the Green Infrastructure Partnership, the community-of-practice now has a dual focus in supporting two interconnected initiatives, that is: EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process: and Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery in BC, which is led by Asset Management BC,” stated Mike Tanner, Waterbucket Chair.

“In 2016, the Partnership embarked upon a 6-year program of applied research to evolve EAP through a 3-stage building blocks process of testing, refining, and mainstreaming the methodology and metrics for financial valuation of stream systems. The program involved 9 case studies and 13 local governments and yielded 19 “big ideas” or foundational concepts. The program goal was to answer the question, how much should communities budget each year for maintenance and management of stream systems,” stated Tim Pringle.

During the period 2003 through 2010, the Green Infrastructure Partnership played a prominent role in leading change and assisting with implementation of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia, primarily in the Metro Vancouver region. “I see my years of chairing the GIP as helping to get the ball rolling and ideas disseminated, on green infrastructure, all of which has subsequently been taken up by others to a much greater degree of implementation and success. Our efforts a decade ago moved the state of-the-art of green infrastructure to a more mainstream level,” said Paul Ham.

In 2007, the first Beyond the Guidebook guidance document provided a clear distinction between natural and engineered green infrastructure. “Two complementary strategies can ‘green’ a community and its infrastructure: first, preserving as much as possible of the natural green infrastructure; and secondly, promoting designs that soften the footprint of development,” wrote Susan Rutherford. “Green infrastructure design is engineering design that takes a ‘design with nature’ approach, to both mitigate the potential impacts of existing and future development and growth and to provide valuable services.”

“The stream systems component of the region’s first two LWMPs drove changes in practice through the 2000s. The ecosystem-based approach emerged because of the need to remedy stream channel and corridor erosion and flooding. The unintended consequences and costs of land use practices were unfunded liabilities. Once the Minister of Environment approves an LWMP, it is legally binding. Thus, the LWMP is potentially an effective mechanism for influencing what we do within watersheds. The third LWMP is a window of opportunity to get it right,” stated Kim Stephens.

Between 2014 and 2022, the BC Ombudsperson published the Striking a Balance series of reports on riparian enforcement. Jay Chalke linked loss of riparian integrity to failure by local governments to employ adequate oversight of stream systems. In the late 2000s, the hollowing out of the environmental agencies meant they withdrew from former oversight and enforcement roles.

“Advances in science led to different paths along the west coast for British Columbia, California, Oregon and Washington. West Coast experience is a counterweight to those who lean to Ontario and northeast USA for their experience. But many in BC do not understand why mimicking flow duration is risk management. It baffles me why it is that way. Risk management is a really big deal,” states Jim Dumont.

“The 1990s was a very instrumental time of policy and regulation development. The productiveness of the dialogues during the years 1997-2005 inspired a lot of professionals to dig deeper and find solutions and learn. You felt like you were part of a movement. Those were such fantastic discussions and collegiality between municipalities. There was a really good alignment and call to action on making streamside regulation work,” stated Susan Haid.

“We saw rainwater management as something positive. We could grab onto and run with it. And this helped create champions and build committee support for green infrastructure,” stated Darrell Mussatto, former mayor of North Vancouver City. His time in office (1993-2018) coincides with the timeline for the early adopter and leading by example phases of the Metro Vancouver region’s green infrastructure journey.

What went wrong with the stream systems component after Minister of Environment Terry Lake approved the Liquid Waste Management Plan in 2011? Failure to follow through and build on work done up to 2011 to deal with requirements in his ministerial approval is an unintended outcome. The failure to follow through reflected scant understanding of a stream system context.

“You can bend the hydrology of a watershed over decades just because of the housing redevelopment cycle. But you get just one chance every 50 years,” stated Robert Hicks. “In the 2000s, Metro Vancouver had the budget to fund work on the Water Balance Methodology and bridge the source control information gap. Use the water balance approach and green infrastructure to bend the hydrograph down.”

We learn through stories. This is how we pass on our oral history. Storytelling is the way we share intergenerational knowledge, experience and wisdom. “Storytelling is among the oldest forms of communication. Storytelling is the commonality of all human beings, in all places, in all times,” stated Professor Rives Collins, Northwestern University, author of “The Power of Story: Teaching Through Storytelling”.

“The 1990s was a very heady time in government in terms of land use planning and natural resource management. There are initiatives and programs flourishing today that had their beginnings in the Georgia Basin Initiative. And isn’t that how turning that supertanker of thinking happens? Just incrementally, then by gosh, we end up going in a whole different direction than we were when we started,” stated Joan Sawicki.

“Through sharing and learning, ensure that where we are going is indeed the right way,” stated Jody Watson. The Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Education Initiative 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.