Green Infrastructure

“In the 2000s, Fergus Creek was the first of the new generation of watershed plans in the City of Surrey. We wanted a plan that would actually facilitate changes in how land is developed. In other words, what the watershed will look like in future should drive the approach to rainwater management. The Fergus Creek plan introduced the vision for implementing green solutions as the alternative to conventional engineered blue solutions. And it seeded the two ideas that became Surrey’s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Biodiversity DCC,” stated Rémi Dubé.

“We cannot ignore that we had to switch strategies with provincial legislative changes. We were always trying to find out where the political and thus legislative focus was during my era as Drainage Manager, and then trying to fit our program to meet their focus. We used their language but still did what we needed for the City. At the local level, you work with the language of the day and you have to be savvy. When Surrey adopted a Sustainability Charter, it gave us the language we needed to protect environmental and drainage needs,” stated Carrie Baron.

A generation ago, Paul Ham’s quiet and unassuming leadership behind the scenes made the green infrastructure movement possible in British Columbia. As chair from 2005 through 2008, he provided the Green Infrastructure Partnership with credibility at the regional engineers table. Their support enabled the partnership to lead a “convening for action” initiative in the Lower Mainland region. The paradigm-shift during Paul Ham’s watch far exceeded expectation that the Green Infrastructure Partnership would be a catalyst for change.

“A message of hope is paramount in these times of droughts, forest fires, floods AND housing affordability as system resiliency is being stressed. Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery is essential to the solution. If done right, I see it as being at the core of Risk Management. It is a mechanism that can still be leveraged to achieve informed and superior planning for land and water. But local government politicians and staff are being overwhelmed by the issues of the day. That is their current reality. They are losing sight of the big picture,” stated Kim Stephens.

“Transitioning to a new council is a challenge, and always has been. We need a better way to pass along the knowledge we gained to the newly elected ones without them feeling like the old crew are still in charge. We had our time in the office. Now it is their turn to carry the baton and be the champions,” stated Darrell Mussatto. “In some situations, it may be good to have a new group of elected people come in and straighten things out if things are being done poorly. But when you lose staff continuity in a well-run municipality, that changes everything.”

“EAP has a very practical application. MNC is very limited in its ability to manage agricultural land. What we are really seeking to achieve through our involvement in the EAP Partnership is an understanding of what policy options are available to us to work with the farming community. MNC is assessing ways to work with the farming community to implement riparian management changes because you really need to think in terms of the whole-system ecosystem. The stream corridor is part of a bigger story, and it is integrating that into a bigger story,” stated Dr. Dave Preikshot.

“The goal is to reverse some of the harm done by decades of car-oriented urban development, which involved replacing natural spaces that soak up water with impermeable infrastructure such as roads and parking lots,” wrote Morgan Lowrie. “Green infrastructure can be incorporated into a landscape in many ways, from simple tree planting to rain gardens, swales, holding ponds and more complex bioretention systems that involve layers of filtering. Across Canada, cities appear to be jumping on board. The “sponge city” model brings multiple benefits.”

One of the questions addressed by a cross-border panel at a conference in 2007 was this: What lessons can Washington State and British Columbia learn from each other as they strive to minimize the impacts of rainwater/stormwater runoff? “The science-based analytical methodology that we have validated through the Fergus Creek process now enables the City of Surrey and other local governments to explore the fundamental requirements both explicit and implicit in Federal Fisheries Guidelines for stream health and environmental protection,” stated Rémi Dubé.

Asked to describe asset management – or service delivery management as the city is calling it, Jenn Wilson said it’s about balancing risk, cost and service levels. “So, it’s saying, we only have so much money, these are all the services we deliver… and if we cannot fund those service levels as is, how do we mitigate the risk for not funding them properly. So it is a lot of boring systems and spread sheets. I love them. But it’s gathering all the information on our assets, where they are, what condition they’re in, what’s the risk to the community if they fail us,” stated Jenn Wilson.

“It has been widely acknowledged that climate change is having an impact on local governments. Lately, much has been written advocating for the use of natural asset management to reduce the impacts of climate change. But every novel approach carries with it uncertainty about the potential for increased risks,” stated Stephen Gares. “As research confirms that natural asset management is at least equally as effective as engineered approaches, we should find that the courts too will accept natural asset management as a reasonable approach.”