The 'Law & Policy' and 'Technical' primers are built on the experience the Green Infrastructure Partnership has gained, since 2004, in promoting green infrastructure approaches to development in BC. “Topsoil is the interface between rainwater management and drought management. Soil depth creates a sponge,” says Ray Fung.
“We realized there could be a benefit to providing municipal staff and the professional design community with a succinct statement of all of the legal, policy and technical ‘essential elements’ necessary to successfully implement a specific green infrastructure objective,” states Susan Rutherford.
“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,” explains Kim Stephens.
“Experience shows that intra-region communication among local government practitioners is the exception rather than the rule. Showcasing Innovation creates opportunities to have conversations where learning takes place,” stated Paul Ham.
APEGBC6 – Susan Rutherford (120p)
The philosophical underpinning of the green infrastructure approach is a design with nature way-of-thinking and acting. This is very intuitive. It is about ensuring that when we plan our communities, we keep the ecological systems that we rely upon in the forefront of our thinking.
Emphasis is on educating stakeholders regarding the benefits of a design with nature approach to community planning and land development, and facilitating adoption of this approach.
The coming together of a group of change agents in October 1997 set in motion a chain of events that has reverberated through time.
The seminar informed local government and land use practitioners about senior government expectations for applying a Beyond the Guidebook approach to implement ‘green solutions’ that actually protect stream health.
The Green Infrastructure Wiki is an open source movement. It is providing a conceptual framework that can accommodate the range of scales and functions described by the green infrastructure term.
Gaining Groiund Announcement – Dale Wall, Deputy Minister
For change to really occur, practices that until now have been viewed as the exception must become the norm moving forward.
