Water-Centric Planning

LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The value of projects like EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, to the asset management program in Oak Bay is that it helps us better understand the financial case for Bowker Creek. We are then able to make some planning decisions about how much money to put aside to sustain and maintain the creek for the future. Council buy-in is important,” stated Dan Horan, Director of Engineering & Public Works (October 2021)

October 26, 2021 - Posted in Living Water Smart in BC, Living Water Smart: The Series, published in 2021

NOTE TO READER:

The edition of Waterbucket eNews published on October 26, 2021 featured EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, as applied to the 100-Year Action Plan for daylighting Bowker Creek in the Capital Regional District.

On this date, the Partnership released Bowker Creek – A Natural Commons in the Capital Regional District: Using the Ecological Accounting Process to Establish the ‘Financial Case for the Stream’, the sixth in the series of EAP demonstration applications to be completed in a 3-stage, multi-year program of applied research.

Bowker Creek originates at the University of Victoria on southern Vancouver Island and flows for 8 km through three municipalities – Saanich, Victoria and Oak Bay. The creekshed is completely urbanized. The impervious area coverage is 56%. Over 30,000 people reside in the surrounding creekshed. Applying EAP adds to the conceptual framework for stream daylighting with new insights about metrics.

Reconnect Hydrology and Stream Ecology by Design

“EAP provides communities with a philosophy, pragmatic methodology and metrics to make the financial case for annual investment to prevent degradation and improve the condition of ecological assets that constitute a stream corridor system, stated Kim Stephens, Executive Director, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC. “Use of EAP to establish the ‘financial case for the stream’ would put maintenance and management (M&M) of stream corridor systems on an equal footing with constructed assets (municipal infrastructure).”

“The leap forward explicit in the vision for “sustainable drainage service delivery” is whole-system action on the landscape that ensures stream system integrity. Whether constructed or natural, an asset is an asset. And in the built environment, each asset type requires an annual budget for M&M.”

“Once local governments embrace a guiding philosophy that ecological services and use of land for development are equally important, then the next step is for them to include M&M budgets for stream systems in their Asset Management Plans. This would begin the process of reconnecting hydrology and stream ecology by design.”

TO LEARN MORE:

To read the complete story published on October 26, download a PDF copy of Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Financial Case for Bowker Creek in the Capital Region.