British Columbia Partnership announces that rebuilt “Water Balance Model” now incorporates Tree Canopy Module

 

2nd Announcement in a Series 

 

The Water Balance Model for British Columbiais a scenario comparison tool. Re-launched on a Linux platform, the WBM now incorporates the Tree Canopy Module. This innovation resulted from a unique multi-jurisdictional partnership.  Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) collaborated with Metro Vancouver’s three North Shore municipalities — North Vancouver District, North Vancouver City, and West Vancouver — to establish a network of 60 monitoring stations that quantified tree canopy interception of annual rainfall.

“If a tree on an urban lot is cut down, how big is the net loss on that lot?  Or if a tree is planted, how big is the benefit?  If a tree overshadows grass on one side and a rooftop on the other, how does it compare to a tree simply spreading over a lawn?  The unfortunate situation is that until now, answering these kinds of questions was largely based on what we might call informed guesswork – if they were answered at all,” states Yeganeh Asadian, the UBC researcher whose thesis informed development of the Tree Canopy Module.

“Yet these questions are exactly the ones that need to be dealt with if we are going to properly manage this vital resource.  We need more than good principles and concepts.  To make well founded decisions, we need to be able to put numbers on the results of the decisions we make.”

 

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Anyone can register as a TRIAL USER. Just go to www.waterbalance.ca to set up an account and check out the Tree Canopy Module. 

 

E-Blast #2012-20

May 23, 2012

 

 

 

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