Our Climate is Changing…Now What?
British Columbia Professional Organizations Step Up
For BC’s engineers, planners and environmental scientists, the need to adapt plans and projects to account for climate change has become critical.
According to Eric Bonham, Chair of the BCWWA Climate Change Commitee: “While there may be general consensus on climate change predictions at the global scale, real discussion of climate change impacts in our own “backyard” – be it a city, a watershed, or a particular project site – is just getting started. In most cases, the emergence of “best practices” – or even “standard practices” – is still on the horizon.”
Inter-Association Collaboration
In response to this challenge, three of BC’s leading professional organizations, the Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA), the BC Water and Waste Association (BCWWA), and the Canadian Water Resources Association (CWRA) have been working together to provide leadership on this issue. The result was two complementary symposia held in late April 2008.
At the first symposium, titled Changing Climate, Uncertain Future and Evolving Practices, Eric Bonham previewed the second symposium – a workshop held in conjunction with the BCWWA Annual Conference at Whistler and titled Climate Change is Coming…Now What?
This was the first step in cross-fertilizing the two events. In his presentation, Eric Bonham talked about the anticipated impacts of climate change upon water and wastewater infrastructure throughout British Columbia and identified the program content of the BCWWA workshop held in partnership with the CWRA.
Eric also showed a 12-minute documentary titled “Adapting to Climate Change in Metropolitan Vancouver” to set the context for discussion and highlight the need for an integrated response from decision makers, scientists, engineers and administrators regarding climate change impacts upon water and wastewater infrastructure.
“The documentary by Rick Searle of EKOS explores the impacts of sea rise on our coastal communities, including Vancouver, and the responses from decision-makers. This is relevant to issues around infrastructure,” explained Eric Bonham when he introduced the documentary.
To Learn More:
To download a copy of Eric Bonham’s PowerPoint presentation, click on Facing the Future: The Politics and Science of Water in an Age of Climate Change.
Setting the Stage for the Whistler Workshop
“Adopting mitigation measures and integrating adaptation within infrastructure planning will demand a more committed level of cooperation than has been evident to date,” stated Eric Bonham. “Such cooperation would extend to the three levels of government as well as the business, academic sector and general public”.
“The workshop in Whistler will address the challenges that face the practitioner in such matters as the design and construction of infrastructure given the climate trends in BC, including sea level rise as well as precipitation and temperature increases,” continued Eric Bonham.
“Presentations from practitioners in Seattle and Olympia, responsible for the administration of public works, will identify how these two communities are preparing themselves for climate change impacts and a speaker on wastewater infrastructure will also provide a Vancouver perspective,” added Eric Bonham.
Governance Models
In previewing the Whistler event, Eric Bonham also explored the place for other governance models to address climate change issues and outlined a pilot program currently underway on Vancouver Island, CAVI-Convening for Action on Vancouver Island.
“CAVI is a collaborative model that includes representation from BCWWA, Real Estate Foundation of BC, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Community Services, business sector, academia and NGOs with the central purpose of establishing water sustainability and water-centric planning on Vancouver Island that clearly must also recognize climate change impacts,” explained Eric Bonham.
To Learn More:
To view a video of Eric in action and hear his passion in explaining what CAVI is about, please click on this link to YouTube. He elaborates on creating our future through collaboration; create liveable communities in balance with ecology.
Posted July 2008