FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT: Living Water Smart & Making Green Choices to Create Liveable Communities & Protect Stream Health
To download a report-style, PDF version of the following web story, click on Living Water Smart and Making Green Choices. Broad-based and inter-departmental representation from Metro Vancouver municipalities is encouraged. For information about registration, contact outreach @waterbalance.ca
Convening for Action in Metro Vancouver
How do we simultaneously work together as staff within a municipality and as a region AND externally with developers and other private sector players, to ensure we implement sustainable approaches to development?
The foregoing problem statement provides a frame-of-reference that will guide the discussion at the Metro Vancouver Water Balance Model Forum on March 12, 2009. Hosted by the City of Surrey, this ‘by invitation’ learning event is co-sponsored by the Water Balance Model Inter-Governmental Partnership and the Green Infrastructure Partnership. The Forum can inform deliberations vis-à-vis improving the Built Environment and protecing the Natural Enviironment in the Metro Vancouver region.
According to Raymond Fung, Chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership: “It will be an exciting day: regional leaders will report out on approaches and tools for doing business differently; participants will be challenged to ‘think outside the pipe’ in town hall sharing sessions; they can network with practitioners from other municipalities; and they can learn from each other’s experiences.”
“The Metro Vancouver Forum is designed to achieve multiple objectives pursuant to the policy framework outlined by the Province in Living Water Smart,” adds Ted van der Gulik, Chair of the Water Balance Model Partnership. “Also, the Forum will focus on the legal and policy tools and processes that have been both hindrances to green infrastructure implementation, and those that have assisted… or would assist… going forward.”
Program Overview
The Forum is organized as two stand-alone yet connected parts to achieve two sets of learning outcomes: the morning session will focus on HOW green infrastructure is being implemented in the City of Surrey; and the afternoon session will focus on HOW the Water Balance Model supports a regional team approach to doing business differently. Those who attend will:
- Learn about the City of Surrey’s expectations for getting green infrastructure plans built.
- Understand that inter-departmental alignment is essential to being effective in implementing green infrastructure.
- Increase their understanding of what Living Water Smart means for BC.
- Learn about opportunities for applying law and policy tools to effect change on the ground.
- Explore ways they can apply the Water Balance Model to implement green infrastructure solutions.
“The City of Surrey experience and their lessons learned in championing changes in green infrastructure policies and practices will ensure the Forum has relevancy,” concludes Raymond Fung.
Green Infrastructure in Surrey
Drawing on experience gained and lessons learned over the past decade, the City will conduct an inter-departmental sharing session on this theme: “Green Infrastructure – getting it built right”.
“This discussion will serve two objectives: establish the City’s expectations; and, align efforts with the development community to meet the City’s expectations in 
doing business differently,” states Remi Dubé, Drainage Planning Manager with the City of Surrey.
“The City wishes to achieve specific outcomes in the morning; and anticipates a lively exchange of perspectives by designers, developers and regulators. This exchange will provide a reality-check that informs the discussion in the afternoon about regional alignment with provincial goals.”
Program Content – Morning Session
The morning session is organized in three parts explains Remi Dubé. “First, we will describe the evolution of drainage planning in Surrey. We will also introduce the key neighbourhoods that embody the Surrey sustainability vision.”
“After that, we will reflect on the lessons learned on the ground in the East Clayton Sustainable Community. Finally, we will share and reflect on the Grandview Heights and East Newton experiences.”
2004 Design with Nature Forum
In May 2004, the City of Surrey hosted a Water Balance Model Forum that was designed to help stakeholders understand what ‘thinking outside the pipe’ and ‘designing with nature’ actually meant in the context of ‘sustainable subdivisions’ 
that were then newly built in Surrey, Chilliwack and elsewhere in BC.
“Five years later, we have the opportunity to look back and measure our progress in doing business differently,” notes Remi Dubé.
The 2004 Forum was part of the Outreach & Continuing Education Program (OCEP) as implemented by the Inter-Governmental Partnership within the first year of launching the Water Balance Model.
Alignment with Provincial Goals
The Province’s Living Water Smart and Green Communities initiatives provide an umbrella for the Forum. Released in June 2008, Living Water Smart encourages local governments to do business differently, prepare communities for change, and choose to be water smart. By 2012, the Province’s expectation is that:
- “All land and water managers will know what makes a stream healthy, and therefore be able to help land and water users factor in new approaches to securing stream health and the full r
ange of stream benefits.” (page 43)
Further to the above, the Forum will address this question: So, what does this policy statement mean to those involved in land development or redevelopment?
Doing Business Differently
According to Lynn Kriwoken, Director, Innovation and Planning in the Water Stewardship Division of the Ministry of Environment, “This statement is the lynch-pin of Living Water Smart.” Lynn Kriwoken is the Province’s lead person for delivery of the Living Water Smart program, and is a member of the Forum faculty.
Water Sustainability Action Plan
Contributing to Living Water Smart is the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia, a partnership umbrella for action on the ground. It promotes a 'design with nature' approach to land development.
The Water Sustainability Action Plan comprises inter-connected program elements that give local governments and practitioners the tools and experience to better manage land and water resources. One such tool is the Water Balance Model powered by QUALHYMO.
Climate Change Adaptation
The 'design with nature' paradigm cpatures the essence of climate change adaptation. “Adaptation is about responding to the changes that will inevitably occur. Adaptation is at the community level and is therefore about collaboration. If we can show how to get the water part right, then other parts are more likely to follow,” adds Lynn Kriwoken.
Program Content – Afternoon Session
The afternoon session is also organized in three parts explains Ted van der Gulik. “First, we will elaborate on the over-arching provincial policy framework and explain why today’s expectations are tomorrow’s standards. Then Susan Rutherford will lead a town hall discussion on a regional team approach to municipal rainwater / stormwater management.”
“We will conclude with an online demonstration and town hall discussion that explores Water Balance Model applications to set performance targets for green infrastructure.”
Regional Team Approach
The Metro Vancouver Water Balance Model Forum is the first step in building a regional team approach so that there will be consistent messaging regarding on-the-ground expectations for rainwater management and green infrastructure. “We are adapting the experience gained and the lessons learned from the Vancouver Island pilot program,” states Raymond Fung.
Vancouver Island Experience
“The 2008 Vancouver Island Learning Lunch Seminar Series comprised two sets of three seminars each,” reports Kim Stephens, seminar team leader and Program Coordinator for the Water Sustainability Action Plan. Participating local governments represented some 250,000 people. One of a number of outcomes was the Vancouver Island Water Balance Model Forum, hosted by the Cowichan Valley Regional District.”
“What became clear very quickly about the value of the Learning Lunch Seminar 
Series is that it helped local government representatives conceptualize why a consistent approach to rainwater management is needed and what it means regionally.”
Metro Vancouver Application
The Vancouver Island series was organized under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan by CAVI – Convening for Action on Vancouver Island, and in collaboration with the Green Infrastructure Partnership and the Water Balance Model Partnership.
“Our aim is to implement a similar program in Metro Vancouver through collaboration with SILG, the Stormwater Interagency Liaison Group, as part of the implementation program for Metro Vancouver’s updated Liquid Waste Management Plan,” adds Raymond Fung.
“Our vision is to generate excitement so that the Surrey Forum will serve as a catalyst for a series of follow-on learning events in the Metro Vancouver region that municipalities would undertake in collaboration with the Water Balance Model Partnership and Green Infrastructure Partnership,” concludes Ted van der Gulik.
What is the Water Balance Model?
The new ‘Water Balance Model powered by QUALHYMO’ is unique, bridges engineering and planning, links development sites to the stream and watershed, and enables local governments to establish science-based runoff performance targets.
The new Water Balance Model underpins Beyond the Guidebook: The New Business As Usual. To learn more, click on the following link to an article in the April 2008 issue of the e-newsletter Runoff: Create Liveable Communities and Protect Stream Health: Water Balance Model powered by QUALHYMO integrates the site with the watershed and the stream.
The New Business As Usual
“We are using the slogan The New Business As Usual to convey the message that, for change to really occur, practices that until now have been viewed as the 
Posted February 2009