Water-Centric Planning

banner

Tag:

Hans Schreier

    WHEN THE CLIMATE CHANGED: “With hindsight, we can clearly see that in 2015 the West Coast of North America crossed an invisible threshold into a different hydro-meteorological regime,” stated Kim Stephens, Executive Director, Partnership for Water Sustainability


    “A long career provides perspective. A generation ago, water supply managers in B.C. could reasonably anticipate that three months of water storage would be sufficient to maintain supply during a dry summer. Today, however, a 6-month drought is a very real likelihood. Communities need double the storage volume. Everything changed in 2015 when extremes became the norm. The climate is changing and the water balance is out of balance. In engineering terms, we have small margins of safety for water storage and therefore limited resiliency to adapt,” stated Kim Stephens.

    Read Article

    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Look at all the really important science that we were able to produce. There is a lot to be proud of in terms of all that material that we produced for the region, the network and the country,” stated Richard Boase, career environmental champion within local government in British Columbia


    “When I look back at our history, I think wow, how did we do so much applied research. We had a need and Hans Schreier had grad students who were interested in doing the research. Win-win,” stated Richard Boase. “At a critical moment, members of the Partnership team would have an idea around a research theme that supported our hypotheses. And as often happened, I was the arm that had the energy and willingness to take on the research, apply new science in North Vancouver, and get the work done.”

    Read Article

    ADJUSTING TO LONGER AND DRIER SUMMERS IN BRITSH COLUMBIA: “Since 2000, summer precipitation has dropped about 20 per cent. This means we need to be far more conscientious about summer water use,” stated Hans Schreier, a professor emeritus of land and water systems at the University of British Columbia (July 2021)


    Climate change has aggravated an existing vulnerability related to seasonal supply of water in BC. “Most long-term climate stations within the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia have a 50 to 75-year record. Over this time period, there had been an increasing trend in summer precipitation (May-Aug) until around 2000. Since that time (2000-2020), however, there has been a step change to a lower rate of precipitation of around 20 percent,” explained Hans Schreier.

    Read Article