FLASHBACK TO 2012: “Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative” launched at inter-regional Water Balance Forum hosted by Cowichan Valley Regional District (March 2012)
“The Water Balance Forum was the kick-off for an inter-regional education initiative to be implemented in four regions over several years. Sharing of experiences, collaboration, alignment and a consistent approach on Vancouver Island will allow everyone to go farther, more efficiently and effectively,” stated Kate Miller. “Our emphasis will be on “targets and criteria”, lessons learned, and practices necessary to protect stream health.”
Georgia Basin IREI: Okanagan audience introduced to drivers for "Sustainable Watershed Systems, through Asset Management" at FLOWnGROW Workshop (Nov 2016)
“The twin pillars of the IREI are the Water Balance Methodology and Ecological Accounting Protocol,” stated Kim Stephens. “The Methodology links actions at the site scale with desired outcomes at a watershed scale. The new paradigm is that watersheds are infrastructure assets. Local governments would use the Ecological Accounting Protocol to develop a more complete financial picture. It is a method of ascertaining economic value of services drawn from natural assets.”
Georgia Basin IREI: "Everyone learns about the water balance (water cycle) in elementary school, but most have forgotten by high school," stated Kim Stephens in a lecture to landscape architect students at UBC (Nov 2016)
North Vancouver City is a case study for a UBC design course on integration of landscape architecture into urban rainwater management strategies. “The lecture by Kim Stephens was excellent and well-paced,” stated Daniel Roehr, Associate Professor. “He provided clarity regarding a course objective, which is to design at different scales, using the reverse design strategy, site and details first before urban and regional scale.”
Georgia Basin IREI: "The Ecological Accounting Protocol is the lynch-pin for achieving Sustainable Watershed Systems through a whole-system, water balance approach," stated Kim Stephens at a meeting of Metro Vancouver's Stormwater Interagency Liaison Group (Nov 2016)
“The emphasis in using the Ecological Accounting Protocol (EAP) would be on adaptive management design, rather than a prescriptive approach,” stated Kim Stephens. “The essence of EAP is that ‘Optimum Infrastructure Design = Watershed Health’. Optimum implies preserving hydrologic integrity plus achieving best opportunity-cost outcomes in the long-term. The watershed defines what goes into EAP.”
Water Sustainability: "Convening for Action experience shows that success will follow when local governments embrace 10 guiding principles," stated Kim Stephens during a lecture delivered in Parksville (Nov 2016)
“Kim Stephens was able to communicate concepts in a way that made sense to the class. They understood him perfectly,” observed Todd Pugh, sessional instructor for Capilano’s Local Government Administration Certificate program. “It is such a mix of people – there were some who would have liked to hear more about the science behind what he presented, and for others it was more science than they’ve experienced since elementary school.”
Georgia Basin IREI: "Local governments learn from each other and progress through sharing of case study experience," stated Kim Stephens in his presentation to municipal engineers at the Annual APEGBC Conference (Oct 2016)
The Municipal Engineering Division invited Kim Stephens to make a presentation on Sustainable Watershed Systems at the 2016 APEGBC Annual Conference. “We then invited Kim Stephens to write an article for Innovation magazine that would help spread word about his presentation, as well as provide a sneak peek for conference attendees,” states Monique Kieran. “The article serves as a proceedings article for the conference presentation.”
Implementation of Stormwater Utility in the City of Victoria: Moving Towards a Water-Resilient Future
The new billing system also allows people to reduce their stormwater bills by making improvements to their property to better manage water, Fraser Work said. Financial rewards will be offered to property owners who add rain gardens, cisterns, green roofs or resurface driveways with a permeable surface that absorbs stormwater. “When you are looking at potentially replacing your driveway, when you are looking at doing some roof work … you can look at this rewards program as a source of cost mitigation.”
OPINION: What do we want this place to look like? – theme for an Op-Ed article by Derek Richmond, published in the Comox Valley Echo
“Water-centric thinking, planning and doing have become more than a vision. They are a reality on Vancouver Island and elsewhere in BC. CAVI, the acronym for the Convening for Action on Vancouver Island initiative, was a driver in this accomplishment and demonstrated what can be done through partnerships and collaboration,” stated Derek Richmond.
FLASHBACK TO 2008: "A performance target approach to land development makes sense, can meet multiple objectives, and thereby result in net environmental benefits at a watershed scale," stated Kim Stephens at the concluding seminar in the Cowichan Valley Learning Lunch Seminar Series (July 2008)
“Once we went back to basics and developed the concept of a Rainfall Spectrum, this then led into the concept of Performance Targets for rainwater runoff capture. The reason runoff percentage is the performance target is that municipalities exert control over runoff volume through their land development and infrastructure policies, practices and actions,” explained Kim Stephens.
A Vision for ‘Sustainable Watershed Systems’ on Vancouver Island: Economy, Ecology and Settlement in Balance by Year 2065
“Unfortunately, the long view of ‘what will this be like in 50 years’ and policy to support such vision is difficult to establish and even harder to defend over time when decision-makers are regularly challenged with the demands of the day," observed Eva Kras. “Yet we need both immediate-term pragmatism and visionary dedication to sustainability if we are to preserve our capacity for positive and permanent regional vitality."