GEORGIA BASIN INTER-REGIONAL EDUCATION INITIATIVE: "Deployment of Water Balance family of online tools would help local governments bring state-of-the-art-hydrology into engineering standard practice," wrote Kim Stephens, in an article for Asset Management BC
Note to Reader:
Published in the Summer 2017 issue of the Asset Management BC Newsletter, the article by Kim Stephens is a progress report on implementation of the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Education Initiative (IREI).
Driving Change
Launched in 2012, the IREI is aligned with the vision for Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery: A Framework for BC. Currently, the IREI is funded by the governments of Canada and British Columbia to develop tools and resources that would help local governments implement “Sustainable Watershed Systems, through Asset Management”.
Project Goal
A goal of the IREI program is to embed state-of-the-art hydrology in engineering ‘standard practice’. Three categories of IREI deliverables are inter-connected and therefore mutually reinforcing:
- Ecological Accounting Protocol
- Water Balance Methodology / Model / Express
- Professional Development & Outreach
“The current focus of the IREI program is to build local government capacity so that local governments can transition to Step Three on the Asset Management Continuum (refer to image below). The paradigm-shift is that watersheds are managed as ‘infrastructure assets’ that provide ‘water balance services’,” states Kim Stephens, Executive Director, Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia.
Water Balance Methodology and Tools
Adopted by the Province in 2002, the Water Balance Methodology is the foundation for a family of online tools for different users at different scales and purposes:
- Water Balance Methodology (existing) – independent of software platform or computer model
- Water Balance Model for BC (existing) – planners
- Water Balance Express (existing) – homeowners
- Online Watershed Assessment Tool (ready in 2017) – engineers
“Deployment would help local governments bring state-of-the-art hydrology into engineering standard practice. The driver for using the Water Balance family of tools is this desired outcome: restore watershed hydrology and re-set the ecological baseline, ” explains Kim Stephens.
To Learn More:
Download SUSTAINABLE WATERSHED SYSTEMS, THROUGH ASSET MANAGEMENT: Embed ‘state-of-art’ hydrology in engineering ‘standard practice’ to read the complete article as published in the Summer 2017 issue of the Asset Management BC Newsletter.
Visit: https://waterbucket.ca/rm/category/sustainable-watershed-systems/
