DOWNLOAD BEYOND THE GUIDEBOOK 2007: “Context for Rainwater Management and Green Infrastructure in British Columbia” (released June 2007)
Note to Reader:
Under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia, the Inter-Governmental Water Balance Model Partnership (IGP) and the Green Infrastructure Partnership (GIP) collaborated to produce Beyond the Guidebook: Context for Rainwater Management and Green Infrastructure in British Columbia, released in June 2007.
Water Balance Methodology and Stream Health
Beyond the Guidebook 2007 initiated a paradigm-shift (change in way-of-thinking and acting). It built on the foundation provided by Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia, published in 2002. And it provided context for an inter-disciplinary approach and a shift from single-objective stormwater management to comprehensive and multi-objective rainwater management.
The Guidebook’s premise that land development and watershed protection can be compatible represented a radical shift in thinking in 2002. An educational objective was that practitioners would view the watershed and its streams from a much more holistic perspective.
“The key message is that Beyond the Guidebook 2007 was the first guidance document to connects the dots between the Water Balance Methodology (that is at the heart of the Guidebook) and stream health protection. This breakthrough was transformational because it allowed drainage practitioners to develop a watershed approach that addresses stream protection and/or restoration,” states Kim Stephens, Executive Director of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC.
“Under the Beyond the Guidebook banner, the web-based Water Balance Model decision support tool was integrated with QUALHYMO, a continuous simulation engine developed by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment in the early 1980s for rainfall-runoff modelling.
“The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) was a key participant in the ‘Beyond the Guidebook’ process, in part because the runoff-based approach was intended to resolve performance concerns arising from misapplication of a 4-page document originally released by DFO in 2000 and titled Urban Stormwater Guidelines and Best Management Practices for Protection of Fish and Fish Habitat, Draft Discussion Document.”
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Application of What We Have Learned
“The Guidebook recognized that water volume is something over which local government has control through its infrastructure servicing policies, practices and standards. Through implementation of ‘green infrastructure’ practices, the desired outcome in going Beyond the Guidebook is to apply what we have learned at the site scale over the past five years – so that we can truly protect and/or restore stream health in urban watersheds”, stated Paul Ham, Chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership, when ‘Beyond the Guidebook 2007’ was released.
“The Guidebook established the framework for rainfall capture and a performance target way-of-thinking and designing. Beyond the Guidebook will take the Guidebook to the next level of evolution. Now that practitioners are becoming comfortable with what ‘rainfall capture’ means in practice, local governments and the development community are in a position to turn their attention to what is an achievable outcome that makes sense and results in net environmental benefits at a watershed scale.”
To Learn More:
Download a copy of Beyond the Guidebook: Context for Rainwater Management and Green Infrastructure in British Columbia.