CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION IN METRO VANCOUVER: “You can bend the hydrology of a watershed over decades just because of the housing redevelopment cycle,” stated Robert Hicks, a career engineer-planner in local government in the Metro Vancouver region
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 S8.
So, what do we do?
“The LWMP is the vehicle for integrating multiple expectations and requirements to achieve affordable and effective outcomes for streams and trees and the Drainage Service component of the plan,” wrote Kim Stephens, Synopsis author and Partnership Executive Director.
Get on with implementing the course correction!
“The elephant in the room is Organizational Amnesia. At a generational moment, this condition represents a huge obstacle for the Metro Vancouver region and municipalities to overcome so that that the region can address previous unintended consequences.”
“Can organizational amnesia be overcome? Could lightning strike twice? Could the region re-emerge as a beacon of inspiration? Of course it could. But it will come down to whether the right people are in the room at the right time, and whether they can learn from and build on past experience and the wisdom that flows from experience.”
About Robert Hicks
Robert Hicks, a career engineer-planner in local government, has an experience-based perspective on the impacts of changes to the landscape. His career achievements include co-creating the “streams and trees component” of the existing Integrated Liquid Waste and Resource Management Plan for the Metro Vancouver region.
Circa 2000, Robert Hicks created the graphic below as a communication tool to make the case to elected representatives that re-development creates the opportunity for communities to use a water balance approach to bend the hydrology of a watershed over decades.
This built support for changes in development practices and galvanized action in the 2000s. The evolution of technical understanding is illustrated by the timeline and milestones listed in the image below.
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