A recently completed study, Greenhouse Gas and Energy Co-benefits of Water Conservation, the first of its kind in Canada, suggests a significant untapped opportunity exists for water conservation to reduce energy, save municipal dollars and mitigate Greenhouse Gas emissions.
The Town of View Royal has developed a Green Infrastructure Grant Template that establishes a provincial benchmark for other municipalities to measure themselves against when applying for senior government funding. As part of the program for the 2008 Showcasing Green Infrastructure Innovation Series, the Town is sharing its template with other municipalities.
The mission of the Alberta Low Impact Development Partnership is to protect and maintain the integrity of the natural environment while promoting the growth, prosperity and quality of life of Alberta’s communities. Implementation of low impact development practices will lead to healthier, more sustainable watersheds.
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.
'Runoff' is the newletter for the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Water Resources Association. The April 2008 issue included an article about the launch of the “new Water Balance Model”. The article highlighted several key messages regarding the significance and relevance of integrating the Water Balance Model with QUALHYMO to achieve provincial policy objectives.
A goal of the Green Infrastructure Partnership is to build capacity through the sharing of experiences, approaches and lessons learned by practitioners in implementing green infrastructure policies and practices.
In the United States, water and wastewater treatment facilities account for 35% of energy used in municipalities. The consequences of the growing electric power and water demands will require more intensive management of water resources, greater integration between water and energy planning, more watershed or regional planning, and new science and technology to meet these needs.
We get energy from water, and we use energy to supply, treat and use water. Water use involves significant energy inputs which must be considered. The solutions to water and energy management issues require that decision-makers, policy leaders, and the public better understand the relationship between water and energy and take the necessary steps to ensure the sustainable supply and use of these resources.
Three provincial Ministries and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans have formed a Vancouver Island Coordinating Team to facilitate a consistent, science-based approach to rainwater management on Vancouver Island. Implementation is keyed to use of the Water Balance Model for British Columbia.The objective in aligning efforts is to advance the state-of-the-practice in rainwater management on Vancouver Island.
The Institute for Resources, the Environment and Sustainability (IRES) is both an interdisciplinary research institute and a major interdisciplinary graduate education program at the University of British Columbia. It is the mission of IRES to work to foster sustainable futures through integrated research and learning about the linkages among human and natural systems, to support decision making for local to global scales.
