Rainwater Management

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Shifting Baseline Syndrome

    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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    DESIGNING WITH NATURE IN SURREY TO CREATE A LIVEABLE COMMUNITY WHILE PROTECTING STREAM HEALTH: “We treat our watercourses like the gift that they are. We try to do the best we can with how we grow and develop the community,” stated Samantha Ward, Drainage Manager with the City of Surrey


    “There are so many benefits associated with watercourses that go well beyond moving water from A to B. This understanding is reflected in our Biodiversity Conservation Strategy. Without our watercourses, Surrey would feel different. It would not be the place that it is. In the uplands, it is the biodiversity piece. And going beyond just setting a corridor to ask, how can we enhance that corridor to maximize the biodiversity value it brings. On the coast and in the lowlands, we have been focusing on flood resiliency and adaptation,” stated Samantha Ward.

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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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    A SHORT HISTORY OF STORMWATER MANAGEMENT EVOLUTI0N IN SURREY: “By the time I retired in 2008, Surrey was ready to move beyond pilot projects and set watershed-based objectives and targets,” stated Paul Ham,former General Manager of Engineering, City of Surrey


    “As years pass, we tend to forget or take the early innovation for granted. We learned a lot from our East Clayton experience, and we adapted our approach in subsequent Surrey neighbourhoods. The East Clayton experience gave us confidence to implement new green infrastructure objectives in the next two plans. The Fergus Creek watershed plan followed. It was the inspiration for going beyond the Stormwater Guidebook. Surrey provided core content for the seminar that launched the provincial initiative in 2007,” stated Paul Ham.

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