WBM Express for Metro Vancouver Region: Concept presented to Stormwater Interagency Liaison Group in November 2010
Note to Reader:
Under Metro Vancouver’s Integrated Liquid Waste & Resource Management Plan, the function of the Stormwater Interagency Liaison Group (SILG) is to facilitate municipal rainwater and stormwater management activities, and to research rainwater and stornwater management practices. In November 2010, Kim Stephens (Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC) and Richard Boase (District of North Vancouver) made a presentation to SILG to inform the members about pending development of the Water Balance Model Express for Landowners.
Implement Change, One Property at a Time, to Protect Watershed Health
“Richard Boase, representing the Inter-Governmental Partnership in his capacity as Co-Chair, provided an overview of how the Water Balance Model Express would work. He explained that the general concept is that a simplified version of the full WBM could be used through a user-friendly interface targeted at property owners and small lot developers to assist these users during land development and redevelopment,” 
summarized John McMahon (District of West Vancouver), the SILG Chair.
“This would provide a functional tool to help implement positive change one lot at a time, and would then have watershed-wide beneficial impacts. A similar level tool provided by Richard Boase as an example is the District of North Vancouver’s ‘solar calculator’.
District of Central Saanich Bylaw is the Catalyst for Tool Development
“In February 2010, the District of Central Saanich adopted its Surface Water Management Bylaw. Because the bylaw encourages homeowners to use the WBM to make decisions that achieve a lighter ‘hydrologic footprint’, the bylaw became the catalyst for action by the Inter-Governmental Partnership (IGP) to develop a homeowner v
ersion of the WBM,” stated Kim Stephens.
“The Central Saanich bylaw provided the impetus to bring together a focus group for a July 2010 brainstorming session hosted by Metro Vancouver. A key outcome of the session was the decision to develop a ‘vision document’ that would capture the attention of other WBM Partners and facilitate fund raising.”
Process to Create a Project Vision
“The WBM Express is geared to achieving the on-property rainwater management and performance target objectives of local governments in a watershed context in order 
to protect stream health,” continued Richard Boase.
“The focus group represents a spectrum of local governments within the Georgia Basin; and focus group members have volunteered their local governments to be pilots for WBM Express development and to demonstrate implementation.”
“Focus group members have agreed to each take time to write down their individual perspectives on how they each see the WBM Express being applied in their jurisdiction. The individual perspectives will then be melded into the Project Vision.”
“Once there is a Project Vision, the next step is development of a Project Budget complete with a fundraising and project implementation strategy,” concluded Richard Boase.
To Learn More:
To download a copy of the introductory presentation by Richard Boase, click on Water Balance Model Express for Landowners.
