TRCA publishes report on the QUALHYMO-powered "next generation" Water Balance Model (Aug 2008)
Test applications completed for two land development proposals in the Greater Toronto Area
The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) is collaborating with the British Columbia Inter-Governmental Partnership (BCIGP) and Alberta Low Impact Development Partnership (ALIDP) to facilitate Canada-wide use of ‘green’ development 
practices.
An example of this collaboration is the work that TRCA is funding vis-a-vis the QUALHYMO engine that powers the Water Balance Model for Canada.
Application of QUALHYMO
In February 2008, TRCA published a report on two test applications pertaining to hypothetical land development proposals within the Greater Toronto Area.
The report will be incorporated into a rainwater/stormwater guidelines document.
The purpose of these evaluations was three-fold:
- To help evaluate whether the QUALHYMO-powered “next generation” Water Balance Model will be suitable for examining the benefits of “low impact development” (LID) approaches to rainwater/stormwater management at the individual site or property scale.
- To illustrate how the modelling capabilities available in QUALHYMO can be used to model a variety of source control measures and rainwater/stormwater management facilities that would comprise an LID approach on an individual development site.
- To demonstrate a model-based analysis of the effects and benefits of site-level measures in terms of specific rainwater/ stormwater management targets applicable within the Greater Toronto Area.
The performance targets include those related to flood control, watercourse erosion control and stormwater pollutant load control that are generally applied within southern Ontario, in accordance with the 2003 Ministry of Environment guidelines.
As well, the analysis considered targets for hydrologic water balance maintenance that are of interest within the TRCA jurisdictional area.
Findings
“Both test applications of QUALHYMO showed that at the site level, infiltration techniques can maintain local recharge to the groundwater system, and that the resulting reductions in surface runoff volume and pollutant loadings can substantially 
reduce the size of end-of-pipe mitigation measures such as treatment ponds,” stated the TRCA’s Glenn MacMillan.
“For both test applications, recently developed extensions to the QUALHYMO command set were employed to represent site-level measures that promote infiltration and provide physical filtration to help with pollutant load reduction.”
To Learn More:
Download DRAFT Report on QUALHYMO test applications (Feb 2008).
Case study for water balance analysis
Inter-Provincial Partnership
Leadership team representatives from British Columbia, Alberta and the Toronto Region met in Calgary on October 31, 2007 to finalize the framework for an inter-provincial partnership.
According to Ted van der Gulik, BCIGP Chair, “In both British Columbia and Alberta, a coalition of organizations has come together to advance a shared vision. This has proven quite powerful in terms of being able to create momentum. For this reason, we have encouraged the TRCA to form an Ontario coalition of committed partners.”
“In British Columbia, support for what the Water Balance Model symbolizes in terms of doing business differently starts at the highest levels of government,” continues Ted van der Gulik.
“This is why we are stressing the strategic importance of the announcement in May 2008 by the Deputy Minister, Community Development, at the Gaining Ground Sustainable Development Leadership Summit held in Victoria.”
To Learn More: