Rainwater Management

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Remi Dube

    INCREASED FREQUENCY, MAGNITUDE, DURATION AND LIABILITY OF FLOODS: “Thinking about cumulative effects is what has been lost in the science. And that is what continues to be lost obviously in the professional practice,” stated Dr. Younes Alila, professional engineer and professor in the UBC Faculty of Forestry


    “It is the modern science of causation which imposes the probabilistic framework for investigating the causal relationship between the climate and/or land use coverage change. The cause-effect relationship is the only way to put to the forefront the desperate need for an understanding of cumulative effects. And thinking about the headwaters when we are making decisions downstream. Cause-effect. The climate is the cause. The effect is the hydrological response. The land use, land cover changes are the cause…and the hydrological response is the effect,” stated Younes Alila.

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    LOOK AT HYDROLOGY DIFFERENTLY: “Look at watersheds as systems. Know your hydrology, prevent floods and habitat loss,” stated Jim Dumont, Engineering Applications Authority for the Partnership for Water Sustainability


    The story behind the story is about Younes Alila’s Flood Risk Methodology for flood protection. A complementary methodology is Jim Dumont’s Stream Health Methodology for habitat protection. Together they support holistic thinking. “The Stream Health Methodology starts with the stream and ends with the stream. The cornerstone is the flow duration relationship. Engineers routinely extrapolate way, way beyond the limits of the data and then argue fiercely about which curve fitting technique is most accurate,” stated Jim Dumont.

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION IN METRO VANCOUVER – PART B: “When read together, the stories of conversations with 13 green infrastructure influencers in the Metro Vancouver region paint a picture of what it takes to innovate and lead changes in practice in the local government setting,” stated Kim Stephens, Executive Director, Partnership for Water Sustainability


    “A unifying theme in conversations with 13 green infrastructure influencers is that staff champions in local government can only carry things so far. Only when someone who is elected takes the lead, and is the champion, does something happen. In the 2000s, everything was in alignment. The right people were in the right place at the right time. There was energy, there was passion. The regional team approach to municipal collaboration brought all the players together for a shared mission. They learned from each other; they moved forward in tandem,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATOR: “Jim Dumont’s focus is on the analytical tools that produce the numbers that make the case for innovation,” stated Rémi Dubé, former Drainage Planning Manager with the City of Surrey


    “There is a need for a new approach to hydrologic design, Jim Dumont advocated in the mid-2000s. So, Fergus Creek became the pilot for a runoff-based approach because duration of discharge links directly to stream health,” stated Rémi Dubé. “In 2006, when Surrey hosted the showcasing green innovation innovation series, Jim and I said that Fergus Creek is going beyond the guidebook. The phrase stuck. Fergus led to the Beyond the Guidebook Initiative. Jim also maintained that what the watershed will look like in future should drive the approach to rainwater management.”

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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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