CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION IN METRO VANCOUVER: “Relying solely on engineering solutions will never be adequate for managing flood risk,” stated Younes Alila, professional engineer and professor in the UBC Faculty of Forestry
Note to Reader:
In November 2024, the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia released THE SYNOPSIS for the Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver. The Chronicle is a sweeping narrative of the 30-year period from 1994 through 2024. The Chronicle is a layered package comprising four documents: the Chronicle of the Journey, Stories Within the Story, Synopsis and Executive Summary. The target audience for each layer is different.
The Synopsis is the third layer in the cascade. It is oriented to senior managers who have limited time to absorb what they need to know to make informed decisions. The Synopsis is visual and so can easily be skimmed in 20 minutes or less! This extract is from page S27.
Longer and drier summers! Warmer and wetter winters!
“Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, the next evolution in the whole-system approach is to integrate the Stream Health Methodology developed by Jim Dumont with the Flood Risk Methodology developed by Younes Alila at the University of BC,” wrote Kim Stephens, Synopsis author and Partnership Executive Director.
“The analytical foundation common to both is an understanding of streamflow rates and their duration…and how the relationship between the two…changes with changes in land use.”
“Bringing together these two streams of innovation would address risks and consequences at the high and low ends of the streamflow continuum, and in an era when the water cycle is changing.”
“Can we afford to continue on the same path when the stakes are high? We cannot manage the risk of hydrologic extremes without the right understanding of the inherently probabilistic watershed response,” stated Younes Alila.
A cautionary tale
“Engineers routinely extrapolate way, way beyond the limits of the data and then argue fiercely about which curve fitting technique is most accurate. By that time all of the stated and unstated assumptions are forgotten along with the caution about never extending estimates beyond the limit of the data,: stated Jim Dumont, the Partnership’s Engineering Applications Authority.
To Learn More:
Download a copy of the Synopsis of the Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver from 1994 through 2024. released in November 2024. The Synopsis is structured as six sections.
DOWNLOAD A COPY: https://waterbucket.ca/gi/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2024/11/Metro-Van-Chronicle_Synopsis_DRAFT_Nov2024.pdf