Green Infrastructure

“Looking ahead, our vision is that the Green Infrastructure Partnership will build on the foundation provided by past successes; and can then play an integrating role to cut across disciplines and ultimately help communities create neighbourhoods that integrate both good planning and innovative engineering designs, for overall greater sustainability,” stated Ray Fung.

Virginia’s General Assembly passed legislation in early 2004 authorizing the Rivanna River Basin Commission. The Commission was created to confront the ecological challenge posed by excessive stream erosion and sedimentation. t

In June 2008, the Province of British Columbia enacted legislation (Bill 27) that will help municipalities and regional districts create more compact, sustainable and greener communities.

“The Inland Kenworth project in Nanaimo has been incorporated into the curriculum for the Learning Lunch Seminar Series to illustrate how a Design with Nature approach to rainwater management will influence the greening of the built environment and protect stream health,” states Kim Stephens.

The purpose of this document is to provide the reader with a broad-brush picture of “Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia”, published in 2002. The emphasis is on core concepts. The desired outcome is that readers will be interested to learn more by delving into the Guidebook.

The Puget Sound Partnership is a community effort of citizens, governments, tribes, scientists and businesses working together to restore and protect Puget Sound. The charge given to the Puget Sound Partnership by Governor Gregoire and the Legislature is to create a real Action Agenda that turns things around and leads to a healthy Puget Sound. The goal is to make Puget Sound healthy again, and create a roadmap for how to get it done. One of the products developed by the Partnership is a Low Impact Development Technical Guidance Manual.

The approach to stormwater management in the United States has evolved from a focus on rapid conveyance and disposal of runoff to an emphasis on using natural systems to minimize hydrologic and pollutant impacts from developed areas. “Using Rainwater to Grow Livable Communities”, a project undertaken by the Water Environment Research Foundation, explored the benefits and key factors influencing the success of stormwater best management practices. In addition, the project developed a website to ease the integration of best practices into development projects.

Built Green is an environmentally-friendly, non-profit, residential building program of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, developed in partnership with King County, Snohomish County, and other agencies in Washington State. This website provides consumers with easy-to-understand rating systems, which quantify environmentally friendly building practices for remodeling and new home construction, communities and multifamily development units.

The Surrey Forum was a first step in advancing a regional team approach to rainwater management and green infrastructure that will align local actions in Metro Vancouver with desired outcomes identified by the Province's Green Communities Initiative.

“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.