“The East Clayton Neighbourhood Concept Plan provided the first large-scale opportunity to ‘test’ a new approach advocated by Patrick Condon and others. This new approach, which is sometimes characterized as ‘the future is the past’, embodied a design with nature way-of-thinking about drainage,” stated Paul Ham.
Once thought of as a nuisance, rainwater is now universally recognized as one our most important natural resources and proper management (simple to complex) is more important than ever.
Website provides creative new ideas on sustainable practices.
Andy Reese reports that he has been repeatedly reminded of the black box nature of urban stormwater hydrologic design, and the often minimal level of understanding of many designers. The article points out some of the methodologies that can be used to obtain any number of “correct” answers.
“Because Sooke is a small municipality with limited financial resources, we have had to pare down and make the plans practical in order to be affordable. Again, networking and collaboration are making it possible for us to do this effectively,” states Laura Byrne.
“It helps to look back to understand how we got to here. In 2000, DFO released Urban Stormwater Guidelines and Best Management Practices for Protection of Fish and Fish Habitat. It got practitioners thinking about how to capture rainfall in order to reduce runoff volume and protect water quality,” stated Corinio Salomi. DFO had concerns about how the DFO Guidelines were being interpreted and applied (by consultants); and these concerns were addressed by the Beyond the Guidebook Initiative.
When it was released, the Guidebook was a catalyst for action to implement a ‘design with nature’ approach to rainwater management and green infrastructure. “The premise underpinning the Guidebook was that land development and watershed protection can be compatible. The basis for this premise was that municipalities exert control over runoff volume through their land development and infrastructure policies, practices and actions,” states Peter Law. “The Guidebook applied a science-based understanding to develop the water balance methodology and establish performance targets.”
Seattle is promoting new and helpful alternatives to traditional stormwater management.
The Water Bucket Website Partnership reports a 45% increase in user visits after two years of Google Analytics monitoring. The rolling 6-month average exceeds 4000 visits per month. “We attribute this large jump to the cumulative enhancements that the partnership has been systematically implementing,” stated Mike Tanner.
“Volume-based criteria can only be rightly developed by understanding the long-term flux of water volume; and the only way to accurately do this is through well-constructed continuous simulation modeling that accounts for drying processes between storms,” writes Andy Reese.
