LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The 3-year transition strategy for embedding the Ecological Accounting Process at Vancouver Island University has multiple layers and partnerships and there are many moving parts to keep in balance,” stated Anna Lawrence, Program Coordinator for the EAP Transition Strategy Partnership
Note to Reader:
Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. The edition published on October 15, 2024 is the first installment in a 4-part series that showcases a successful precedent to pass the intergenerational baton and build long-term capacity within local government to implement Natural Asset Management.
Anna Lawrence, project coordinator for the EAP Transition Strategy Partnership is the guest editor for a conversation with Bill Sims, general manager of engineering, about the City of Nanaimo’s experience in advancing EAP.
Affordable, effective, pragmatic Natural Asset Management
“The inaugural meeting that launched the EAP Transition Strategy Partnership was on October 27, 2022. That is the moment when EAP Chair Tim Pringle and Kim Stephens handed the intergenerational baton to Graham Sakaki and me to lead the next phase of EAP evolution. It is a 3-year transition,” states Anna Lawrence of the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute (MABRRI) at Vancouver Island University. Anna is the Project Coordinator for the EAP Transition Strategy Partnership.
“I came into the EAP process with a completely different background because my master’s degree is in Sustainable Leisure Management. So, it was a journey to get my head around the jargon and the different viewpoints and ways of thinking. This applied not only to the development of the EAP methodology but also to the different stakeholders.”
For the Year One project, the City of Nanaimo chose Departure Creek, an urban catchment
‘”The Departure Creek project was an exciting analysis because we gained insight into social perceptions of the worth of the creek. This was an add-on layer to the EAP technical analysis. We were fortunate that Departure Creek has a strong stewardship group.”
Financial plus in-kind investment is a measure of worth to the community:
“Jean-Michel put together such amazing, exhaustive information on previous expenditures over the past ten years. This enabled us to put together an educated number for financial expenditures on maintaining the creek.”
“This covered the city side as well as grants and stewardship hours spent on the streamkeeper side. Having this measure validated our estimate of the baseline value for annual maintenance and management, M&M, using the EAP methodology.”
Social perception of the worth of Departure Creek to the surrounding community
“A common thread in the feedback of that survey…in terms of gauging the community relationship to the creek…was that people get a lot of value from the ecological system.”
“Annette Noble, former principal of Departure Bay Elementary School, was kind enough to speak with me and provided insight into some of the ways students have been interacting with Departure Creek.”
“Students receive education about lifecycle of salmon, biodiversity of Departure Creek, and the water cycle. This conversation further emphasized the intrinsic value of WORTH.”
With a different context, different people and a different story comes a different angle
“At the end of Year Two, the Partnership for Water Sustainability, MABRRI and VIU will have completed more than a dozen EAP projects. We are really getting into the different angles of how EAP is usable and transferable.”
“And so, during this 3-year transition strategy, we are really delving into how can EAP be used, and why and how it is useful. Now that I am immersed in it, I like the fact that each creek has a different angle that you can work with…each with a different context, different people, different story.”
EAP makes Natural Asset Management real in a variety of applications:
“There are all these different ways EAP can be applied and used. There is room for creativity in where it can take us. That inherent flexibility also comes up when we present EAP because people have different perspectives.”
“This is a beautiful thing to observe because EAP offers so many different angles for ways of looking at how to address the complex challenges that each local government faces. The methodology to calculate the EAP number is universal but how that number is used can go in any direction depending on the question.”
“EAP project experience to date shows the breadth of roles that EAP can play in making Natural Asset Management real to local governments. This then further positions EAP in the world of municipal asset management budgets…which it is working to do,” concludes Anna Lawrence.
To Learn More:
To read the complete story, download a copy of Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Reflections on the 3-year transition strategy for embedding EAP at Vancouver Island University -City of Nanaimo experience.
DOWNLOAD A COPY: https://waterbucket.ca/wcp/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/09/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_Darrell-Mussatto_reflections-by-an-elected-leaders_2024.pdf