“A Regional Commission is necessary to overcome the main barrier to rational rainwater management: the fragmented jurisdiction over runoff in the region. We envision that the new Commission would create a long-term Regional Integrated Watershed Management Plan with a number of mandatory targets,” states Calvin Sandborn.
When the SmartStorm Forum Series introduced the term 'smart development' a decade ago, the goal was to advance implementation of an integrated and balanced approach to land use. “When we decided to host the second event on the Sunshine Coast, the skeptics asked me who would come. Well, they did come and they came from far and wide, including a representative of the Ontario Ministry of Environment,” stated Barry Janyk.
“Farmers are saying it is not the big storms that cause them problems. Rather, it is all the little storms. All the water from the uplands is just enough that the farmers cannot get on their land and plant or harvest their crops,” stated Ted van der Gulik.
Stan Westby (120p) – Powell River CAO
ISMP Course Correction Series – Story #4 in December 2010
Asset management usually commences after something is built. The challenge is to think about what asset management entails BEFORE the asset is built. What level does a community wish to provide, and what level can it afford.
Jody Watson (120p)
The Bowker Creek Blueprint provides member municipalities, the CRD, the community and other land stewards with information and guidance to restore the watershed and creek corridor over the next 100 years.
cover (364p x475p)
Beyond the Guidebook 2010
There is now a decade of experience from which to extract 'lessons learned' about how to move from awareness (interest) to action (practice). Outcome-oriented planning is a problem-solving PROCESS. It is not a procedure.
Richard Boase (120p) – September 2010
“We saw the Water Balance Model as an important tool that would help us to work within our developed community to restore function and value based on the premise that developed land can contribute to watershed restoration.”
New York City – Green Infastructure Plan – cover (360p)
The city's hybrid gray and green strategy would invest $US2.4 billion over 20 years to comply with new regulations. A critical goal is to manage runoff from 10% of the impervious surfaces in combined seweer watersheds through detention and infiltration source controls.
“So many in local government are searching for the magical ‘silver bullet’to resolve watershed issues and challenges. Yet soil, vegetation and trees can do more for our watersheds than decades of planning, consulting and complicated engineering design will ever achieve,” states Richard Boase.
“While we need to have volume reduction targets, at the end of the day it is how effectively we apply the suite of available rainwater management tools that will ultimately determine whether we will succeed in protecting stream health at a watershed scale,” stated Corino Salomi. “The objective of protecting stream health is broader than how much volume one can infiltrate on a particular development.”
