"Beyond the Guidebook 2015" introduced at BC conference hosted by Canadian Water Resources Association (Nov 2015)
Floods, Droughts, & Everything In Between
In November 2015, the BC Branch of the Canadian Water Resources Association (CWRA) held a 2-day conference which had the theme Floods, Droughts & Everything in Between.
A featured presentation was that by Kim Stephens, Executive Director of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC, because the conference provided an opportunity to continue the rollout of Beyond the Guidebook 2015: Moving Towards “Sustainable Watershed Systems, through Asset Management, third in a series of guidance documents released over the past decade. The series builds on Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia, released in 2002.
Water in an Age of Natural Scarcity
“Our conference theme of ‘Floods, Droughts, & Everything in Between was definitely fitting as the technical program represented an exciting array of very diverse and interesting presentations,” stated Michael Florendo, Technical Director. “Water resources is such a broad field and we structured our conference to have something for 
everyone.”
“We have moved from an age of natural abundance to the age of natural scarcity and the challenge moving forward will be to find new ways for developing, protecting, and managing healthy ecosystems. Water is critical to the survival and proliferation these ecosystems and our success depends on collective change regarding the management of this precious resource.”
Cascading Objectives for Creating a Legacy
“CWRA asked the Partnership whether we wished to make a keynote presentation that addressed the provincial policy, program and regulatory framework that now enables implementation of watershed-based solutions. We jumped at the opportunity,” recalls Kim Stephens.
“The conference allowed us to inform the CWRA audience about an emerging consensus in local government. ‘Beyond the Guidebook 2015’ describes how local governments on the east coast of Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland are collaborating to develop and implement ‘integrated solutions’ that achieve the cascading objectives for Watershed Health, Resilient Rainwater Management and Sustainable Service Delivery. My presentation was part of the Water Policy and Governance stream.”
“The focus of my storyline was on connecting dots. Hence, I referenced the pioneer work of Ray Linsley, one of the gods of hydrology. It is important that audiences understand and appreciated that knowledge and understanding is a building blocks process. Things don’t just happen overnight. In that vein, we must not lose sight of the contributions of those pioneers who have made it possible to advance water resource practice.”
To Learn More:
Download Floods, Droughts, & Everything In Between to view the complete conference program.
Download a PDF copy of Beyond the Guidebook 2015 to view the PowerPoint storyline as presented by Kim Stephens.
Click on Legend and Legacy of Ray Linsley (1917-1990): Connecting the Dots to British Columbia’s Approach to “Mimic the Water Balance” – As a professor at Stanford University, Linsley pioneered the development of continuous hydrologic simulation as the foundation for water balance management. He was a true giant of the profession through distinguished teaching, research, professional practice and service to government.
