Rainwater Management

In 2004 the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center in Sonoma County (California) established the WATER Institute (Watershed Advocacy, Training, Education & Research) to promote an understanding of the importance of healthy watersheds to healthy communities.

The Puget Sound Partnership has adopted an Action Agenda to clean up Puget Sound. For the first time, the Action Agenda provides critical data and a strategy for tackling these threats to the waters in and around Puget Sound. Its four cornerstones are driven by the latest available science and are results-oriented.

“Flooding was caused by undersized culverts and poor grading. Traditional engineering solutions would have resulted in a linear total loss of habitat, would have significantly impacted on private property, and the costs were well beyond the the financial capacity of the Town. Instead, a course of action involving a suite of solutions was chosen. First and most important was a commitment by all jurisdictions to hold the line,” stated Glenn Westendorp.

“The MOU formalizes a relationship that dates back to September 2004 when BC participation in the Okotoks LID Conference was the catalyst for a number of Alberta agencies coming together to form the ALIDP,” stated Doug Marter (City of Calgary), ALIDP Chair. “Under the umbrella of the Inter-Provincial Partnership, we can pool resources with other provinces and add to the capabilities of the Water Balance Model powered by QUALHYMO.”

“The case study applications built a common understanding of how to achieve runoff-based performance targets for rainwater management and green infrastructure,” stated Rob Conway. “What is unique about our approach is the educational context. Willing owners/developers and their planning/design consultants volunteered to develop and share the case studies. It truly is a collaborative effort.”

“In the larger context, the forum is indicative of how far along our community of Vancouver Island practitioners has come,” concludes Jay Bradley. “We are fostering a growing understanding of the fact that what goes on at a site, in terms of how rainwater is treated, is linked not only to stream and watershed health, but also to our social well-being and aesthetics of our communities.”

In the October 2008 issue of Stormwater Magazine, Margaret Buranen examines the state-of-the-art of green roofs in the USA today, providing some basic definitions of their types and construction. The article also looks at how the United States compares to Europe, where green roofs are more widely used, and how some of the barriers, such as higher costs, are slowly being removed.

Cold climates are typically very hard on constructed systems; however, according to Dr. Robert Roseen, director of the University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center, rainwater/stormwater management systems using infiltration and filtration mechanisms, if properly designed, can work well in cold-weather environments.

The Cowichan Valley Regional District has begun a dialogue with its member municipalities regarding implementation of a consistent regional approach to rainwater management and green infrastructure.

The Rain Garden Fact Sheet by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation provides information on designing and building a rain garden, as well as tips for improving rainwater management on individual residential properties.