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Contextual Resources

ADDRESSING AFFORDABLE HOUSING’S HIDDEN UTILITY COSTS: “Supersizing pipes to accommodate drainage demand is costly and disruptive to communities,” stated Robert Hicks, career engineer-planner in local government in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia


“The Province has come out with their transit-oriented development legislation. What that means is redevelopment. And redevelopment means a demand on utilities. Sometimes these demands have already been anticipated and planned for. And sometimes these are new and somehow have to be accommodated. Sewage and drainage are a little trickier than other utilities. That is where we have this crunch of priorities and a concern. Yes, we need affordable housing. But affordable housing must be serviced with infrastructure that is also affordable,” stated Robert Hicks.

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LANDSCAPES AND WATERSHEDS IN BC ARE AT A HEIGHTENED RISK: “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 who is raising the alarm about scientifically indefensible practices in forest hydrology


Younes Alila is in the news. He is courageous in challenging conventional wisdom about what he believes to be the misguided practice of forest hydrology in BC. His message boils down to RISK and LIABILITY. “Engineering solutions to flood risk mitigation deal only with symptoms. And they fail to account for cumulative effects. The outcome is unintended consequences,” he says. “Flood mitigation work in the low land must be in sync with our land use and forest cover policies in the uplands. This is our only hope of increasing our chance of managing flood risk.” His findings are relevant to urban drainage practice.

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BRING SCIENCE INTO LOCAL GOVERNMENT: “Over the years, we worked on a whole range of things which were innovative. Without the participation by someone like Richard Boase, I doubt we could have done it,” stated Dr. Hans Schreier, Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Land and Water Systems at the University of British Columbia


“Municipalities have limited access to science and they do not have time to do the science. So, why not use the students? Not only is it a benefit to community leaders, the students benefit because they are doing something that makes a difference. And so, connecting with Richard Boase in the 1990s was really fundamental because he is on the inside. Richard identified projects where the students could benefit directly and make a difference. To me, that was the opportunity,” stated Hans Schreier.

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KEEP IT SIMPLE, PRACTICAL AND IMPLEMENTABLE: “If people rely too much on standards, they park their brain at the door. Its much better to think about the principles behind the standards and use judgement in implementing them,” stated Pete Steblin, former City Engineer and City Manager


“When I became City Manager, the City’s approach to watershed-based community planning, rainwater management and green infrastructure was quite idealistic. As a result, the city could not implement what was proposed. We had to do a re-think. That is when we came up with the monicker net environmental benefit. So, what we did was to re-think things and say something is better than nothing. When we made those changes to on-site rainwater management requirements, they were good changes, and they were well received,” stated Pete Steblin.

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DESIGN WITH NATURE TO RESTORE STREAM HEALTH: “Streams need a place to be. If we cannot get our heads around that, we are not going to keep our streams,” stated Tim Pringle, Chair of the Ecological Accounting Process Initiative


“Because nature is a system, you cannot slice and dice it. EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, recognizes this and is a financial tool to give streams the support they need to survive in the local government setting. EAP provides a value picture of a stream system as a land use. The Riparian Areas Protection Regulation enables this approach. The foundational ideas behind what we advocate are IMPLEMENTATION and RESPONSIBILITY. And there is a third idea named OPPORTUNITY,” stated Tim Pringle.

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INSTILL A CULTURE THAT SUPPORTS CHAMPIONS: The “blue link” rain garden is symbolic of the transformational change which has taken root in the Township in the 21st century as designing with nature became the ‘new normal’.


Resource protection – for groundwater supply and fisheries habitat – is the original driver for implementing ‘green infrastructure’ in Langley. Township staff have learned and adapted. Langley has led by example and implemented a ‘water balance’ approach to large-scale residential projects. Moving ahead on a ‘green’ platform gained momentum as standard practice evolved through ‘learn by doing’ experience. “The term ‘blue link’ describes the purpose of the current drainage standard in Langley. It replaced the traditional curb-and-gutter detail for all but arterial roadways,” stated Ramin Seifi.

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KEEP IT SIMPLE, PRACTICAL AND IMPLEMENTABLE: “Drill down and make your plans as simple as possible. So simple that you could bring multiple, multi-year plans forward at the same time, regardless of the resources you have on hand,” stated Melony Burton, Manager of Infrastructure Planning with the City of Port Coquitlam in Metro Vancouver


“When I looked at the history of the DCC Bylaw updates, staff had tried to take it forward several times. They would almost get to the finish line, then trip and fall. Each time, it seems that they started fresh instead of looking at why the previous attempts had failed. The first thing I did was look at WHY THEY FAILED. They tripped over being too complicated or getting sidetracked. Keeping it simple and basic is what got the DCC Bylaw over the line. In five years, we can update it and make it more complex if we need to. Now we at least have an updated bylaw adopted,” stated Melony Burton.

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SOLUTIONS TO COMPLEX PROBLEMS REQUIRE DEEP KNOWLEDGE: “It is mentoring and actively passing on knowledge that allows complex problems to be solved. It will take time. But with a long-term strategy, you will get there,” stated Robert Hicks, a career engineer-planner in local government in the Metro Vancouver region


“The notion of a superficial understanding explains the challenge that I am seeing. There are post-2000 graduate engineers coming out of university who are familiar with green infrastructure ideas and concepts, but they do not know the details behind them: details that they did not have to know at university or in their previous jobs. Sure, they understand rainwater management ideas and concepts at a high level. But without the background and history, can they really appreciate why certain targets and approaches were selected while others were not?” stated Robert Hicks.

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FROM PILOT PROJECTS TO WATERSHED-BASED OBJECTIVES: “With completion of the Fergus Creek watershed plan, we were at a point where we could integrate engineering, planning, biology, geomorphology and recreation to influence the greening of the built environment,” stated Rémi Dubé, a green infrastructure champion and innovator with the City of Surrey


“In the 2000s, Fergus Creek was the first of the new generation of watershed plans in the City of Surrey. The Fergus Creek plan showed why and how contiguous greenways make rainwater management easier and provide the land we need to actually achieve multi-purpose outcomes. In 2009, we framed the nature of the paradigm-shift with this statement: Surrey is moving beyond green infrastructure pilot projects to a broader watersheds objectives approach. From this precedent emerged the framework for Surrey’s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy,” stated Rémi Dubé.

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DESIGN WITH NATURE TO RESTORE STREAM HEALTH: “We need to be open to change and learning from nature. We also cannot work in silos. Our best progress comes from working together and solving issues together,” stated Carrie Baron, former Drainage Manager with the City of Surrey


“You observe what happens. And then you can try to apply that understanding in your simulations or your designs when building something. Look at things! Do not just sit in a room with a computer. You have got to be out there watching and trying to understand what is happening in nature. I describe this as research with a purpose. In the Sustainability Charter (2008) we made a commitment that the City would not just ask developers to do things. We said we would do those things on City developments as well. And we would test them at our own cost,” stated Carrie Baron.

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