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“The science of stormwater management is catching up with the development that has occurred. That is the problem. We are playing catchup – and application of the science is lagging far behind long established established knowledge,” wrote Rick Baumann in a guest column. “As early as the 1940’s – when state poet laureate Archibald Rutledge published his classic book ‘Home by the River’, stormwater had been reeking havoc for quite some time.”

“Use of the Water Balance family of methods and tools will help local governments bring state-of-the-art hydrology into engineering standard practice,” stated Ted van der Gulik. “Our objective is to make it easy for local governments to establish, require and implement Water Balance performance targets. The methods and tools exist. It is a matter of enhancing them to support EAP (Ecological Accounting Protocol) plus expand their use.”

“The EAP approach begins by first recognizing the importance of a stream in a natural state and then asking: how can we maintain those ecological values while allowing the stream to be used for drainage,” states Jim Dumont. Benefits of the whole-system approach would include less flooding, less stream erosion, and more streamflow during dry weather when needed most.

“The Ecological Accounting Protocol is about specific values (pricing) – not imputed, generalized values,” wrote Tim Pringle. “Since cost-avoidance, at least perceived cost-avoidance, motivates much of the decision-making process about infrastructure, and development in general, why has the obvious role of natural assets been omitted to date? The Ecological Accounting Protocol suggests it is the lack of measurement.”

“The mini-summit commenced the branding process within British Columbia for use of the phrase ‘water for life and livelihoods’ to focus on what is at stake over both the short and long terms,” stated Erik Karlsen. “It was a presentation by Tim Pringle that introduced the “settlement in balance with ecology” principle to draw attention to a balanced approach to achieving social, environmental, economic well-being — with inclusive and accountable governance.”

“The emphasis in using the Ecological Accounting Protocol (EAP) would be on adaptive management design, rather than a prescriptive approach,” stated Kim Stephens. “The essence of EAP is that ‘Optimum Infrastructure Design = Watershed Health’. Optimum implies preserving hydrologic integrity plus achieving best opportunity-cost outcomes in the long-term. The watershed defines what goes into EAP.”

The Real Estate Foundation of BC hosted the Green Developers Roundtable at the 2008 Gaining Ground Summit. “We organized the roundtable event to engage the major Vancouver Island developers in a conversation about the factors that facilitate or hinder their efforts to design, plan for and implement development incorporating Green Value Strategies on Vancouver Island,” said Jack Hall, REFBC Chair at that time.

“The Ministry of Environment appreciates that the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC embraces shared responsibility for the Water Sustainability Action Plan. The next phase of the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Education Initiative will add to ‘Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery: A BC Framework’ and integrate watershed systems thinking and adaptation to a changing climate into asset management,” wrote Wes Shoemaker.

To develop a common understanding, the Green Infrastructure Partnership unveiled a cascading hierarchy. “Desired outcomes for water sustainability and green infrastructure can be achieved through infrastructure standards that reflect a full and proper understanding of the relationship between land and water”, stated Kim Stephens.

“Whether discussing the economy or ecological challenges, the significance and relevance of the findings from Flow and Grow is that they will be replicable throughout the province and beyond,” stated Ted van der Gulik. “The reason for this applicability is that the workshop focus was on the impacts of climate change and the need to plan now for a water sustainable future.”