Rainwater Management

This Water Environment Research Foundation report by LK Lampe, entitled “Post-project monitoring of BMPs/SUDS to determine performance and whole-life costs”, states that, over the past 20 years, the use of Best Management Practices (BMPs) in the United States has been instrumental in reducing both the detrimental impacts to receiving water quality and the exacerbated flooding caused by urbanization and storm water drainage. More recently, Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) have started to be used in the United Kingdom.

The Stormwater Interagency Liaison Group (SILG), a technical committee of the Greater Vancouver Regional District, has provided funding so the Water Sustainability Committee (WSC) of the British Columbia Water & Waste Association can implement the Rainwater Management Community-of-Interest (COI).

“For the past three years we have been educating practitioners and others on the importance of soil depth as a rainwater management tool. Looking ahead, implementation of the Tree Canopy Module is the first step in developing a similar science-based understanding regarding the benefits of maintaining a tree canopy in the urban environment,” stated Ted van der Gulik. While considerable research has been undertaken in forest stands in the natural environment, very little has been
done in an urban setting anywhere in North America.

A number of British Columbia municipalities have embraced the concept of “sustainable streets” and have recently completed flagship projects.

Pamela Martin, CTV News co-anchor, interviews Corino Salomi of the Department of Fisheries & Oceans at the Coho Festival in West Vancouver.

Kelowna was the venue for an evening technical session on October 19, 2005 that provided Okanagan municipalities and practitioners with the opportunity to gain insight into emerging practices and products for achieving rainwater management objectives in British Columbia.

The Kamloops chapter of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC (APEGBC) and the EMCO Corporation collaborated in November 2005 to organize a technical session on Rainwater Management.

Fourteen distinguished Washington State scientists have responded to the Puget Sound Partnership plan with a bold outline for action to save the Puget Sound eco-system. The outline includes recommendations for preserving whole watersheds, implementing restrictive LID development standards, and adopting a policy of no net loss of forest cover.

Capturing rainwater where if falls offers appealing technical alternatives to stormwater runoff capture than conventional end-of-pipe measures.