Rainwater Management

FROM THE ARCHIVES (2016): “Ecosystem-based adaptation is a novel approach to planning and adaptation that prioritizes ecosystem services, enhancing biodiversity, as well as human health and wellbeing,” stated Julia Berry when she presented her research findings to the Metro Vancouver Stormwater Interagency Liaison Group

Note to Reader:

Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. The edition published on February 18, 2025 featured a conversational interview with co-authors Dr. Sean Markey and Herb Hammond about their vision for Nature-First Cities.

The book is intended to inspire government and community-based action by illustrating how cities can co-exist with nature. To that end, the book introduces a guiding philosophy and methodology the authors have framed as Nature-Directed Stewardship.

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE / CONTEXT FOR BUSY READER

“In November 2013, Sean Markey reached out to me: ‘I am working with Cam Brewer, Herb Hammond and the Still Moon Arts Society to produce an ecosystem-based plan for the Still Creek watershed in Vancouver’,” stated Kim Stephens, Waterbucket eNews Editor and Partnership Executive Director. Sean Markey is a professor in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University

“Sean asked for my perspective on urban ecosystem-based planning and, to elaborate on their concept, attached Cam Brewer’s Whitepaper on inviting nature home. Suffice to say, I was intrigued and readily agreed to meet.

“At our initial meeting over breakfast, Sean inspired me with his vision. But I cautioned him that it would be challenging to resuscitate the ‘ecosystem-based approach’ as a guiding philosophy for local government actions as they relate to rainwater management, green infrastructure and climate adaptation.”

“Nevertheless, I said to Sean, we must try. Within mere months, an opportunity arose for us to do exactly that when along came the right grad student at the right time.”

“Julia Berry, one of Sean Markey’s grad students, asked me to co-supervise her Master’s thesis titled ‘Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change in Urban Areas: An Evaluation of Rainwater Management Practices in Metro Vancouver’.”

“Julia Berry applied original thinking to core concepts and produced an evaluation framework for Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA). Her thesis is a foundation piece in a building blocks process that stretches over time. Publication of Nature-First Cities is the latest milestone in that process.”

Think and Act like a Watershed Series drew attention to the “ecosystem-based approach”

“Fast-forward from November 2013 to May 2016. At a meeting of the Metro Vancouver Stormwater Interagency Liaison Group (SILG), a forum for municipal local government representatives, Julia Berry presented her findings.”

“Julia Berry’s thesis was the inspiration for the Partnership releasing Sustainable Watershed Systems: Primer on Application of Ecosystem-based Understanding in the Georgia Basin in September 2016. “

“The value of her work is that it connected contemporaneous research to past approaches that had been fallow for more than a decade.”

**EAP provides the means to operationalize the vision for Nature-Directed Stewardship so that cities and nature can co-exist**

“Fast-forward from 2016 to the present. For almost a decade, the Partnership and the Nature-First Cities team have been progressing along parallel tracks. In the months ahead, we will be collaborating in ways that merge our efforts to give the ecosystem-based approach a major boost.”

“In the big picture, Tim Pringle and Herb Hammond are thinking along the same lines regarding water movement within a watershed and the concept of developing a restoration network built around the water network.”

Last stand or beachhead?

“The Metro Vancouver region is at both a cross-roads and a tipping point for regional growth management and livability. Will the “streams and trees” component of the current Liquid Waste Management Plan be the last stand or the beachhead for a RISK MANAGEMENT approach to getting it right?”