Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC

METRO VANCOUVER LEGACY RESEARCH; BENCHMARK FOR WATERSHED HEALTH: “The Ecological Accounting Process is about the condition and financial value of municipal stream assets that supply ecological services,” stated Tim Pringle, Adjunct Faculty with the Master of Community Planning Department at Vancouver Island University

April 8, 2025 - Posted in water sustainability

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. Storylines accommodate a range of reader attention spans. Read the headline and move on, or take the time to delve deeper – it is your choice! Downloadable versions are available at Living Water Smart in British Columbia: The Series.

Stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway, Editor’s Perspective, and the Story Behind the Story.

The edition published on April 8, 2025 featured Tim Pringle and Robert Hicks to support an announcement that the Partnership and the Metro Vancouver Regional District are co-funding the next evolution of EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process. Metro Vancouver is coming full circle to build on seminal research that it undertook in the late 1990s to develop a classification system for watershed health. EAP adds financial dimension for asset management purposes.

Metro Van legacy research; benchmark for watershed health comparison then and now

“Urban streams are rarely managed as ecological systems or as municipal assets. Rather, they are sliced and diced to suit land development objectives. And this has consequences such as erosion and flood damage, loss of property enjoyment, and loss of aquatic habitat,” stated Tim Pringle at a recent technical meeting of Metro Vancouver member municipalities.

Legacy research informs path forward for community investment in urban stream systems to reduce risks and costs

“As the Election Day 2024 Flood demonstrated, the financial costs are tangible. This is context for Metro Vancouver coming full circle to build on seminal applied research undertaken in the Metro Vancouver and Puget Sound regions in the late 1990s,” continued Tim Pringle.

Benchmark for comparison, then versus now

“Context is everything. In 1999, the science was brand new and the Streamside Protection Regulation was still two years away from becoming law. This context underscores just how far ahead of the game that Metro was with its watershed health work.”

“Completed in 1999, the landmark project was titled Assessment of Current and Future Conditions of GVS&DD Area Watershed and Catchment Conditions. Metro Vancouver was ahead of its time with this leading-edge application of Washington State science.”

Urban streams are municipal assets; they need to be maintained and managed to supply ecological services

“A generation later, the Ecological Accounting Process is a financial tool that would make RFI actionable by member municipalities,” emphasized Tim Pringle when stating what matters.

Building on legacy research in 2025

“The Metro Vancouver regional district is the newest member of the EAP Partnership. Metro Vancouver and the Partnership for Water Sustainability are co-funding EAP assessments for 5 streams in 5 member municipalities.”

“This work will set the stage for municipalities throughout the Georgia Basin region to use EAP as a predictive tool,” concluded Tim Pringle.

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE / CONTEXT FOR BUSY READER

“Revisiting the 1999 findings and adding the EAP dimension supports the Draft Interim Liquid Waste Management Plan (LWMP) adopted by the Metro Vancouver Board in November 2024. The EAP Partnership will “make real” and thus help the region operationalize actions listed under Goal 4 and Strategies 10, 11 and 12 in the ‘streams and trees component’ of the plan,” stated Kim Stephens, Waterbucket eNews Editor and Partnership Executive Director.

Springboard to a re-set in how communities measure and value stream assets

“The core content for the story behind the story is extracted from the Synopsis of the Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver from 1994 through 2024. It is supplemented by what Tim Pringle said during his Metro Vancouver presentation on April 3, 2025.”

To learn more about this key moment, click on LESSONS FROM THE PAST INFORM THE FUTURE IN METRO VANCOUVER: Draft Interim Liquid Waste Management Plan is the springboard to a re-set and course correction in 2025

Takeaway message for the busy reader

“We know there are people in local government who care about streams,” believes Tim Pringle. “There is a way for them to do more to protect streams that builds on previous work by Metro.”

“If local government audiences grasp that idea, reinforced with an understanding of how much we have done, that we know what we are doing, Vancouver Island University is the EAP centre of excellence, Metro Vancouver is a partner. Those are the takeaways.”

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Urban streams are municipal assets; they supply ecological services

The story behind the story is structured in two parts. The historical context is first. Robert Hicks, an ambassador of the Partnership, explains how Metro Vancouver tapped into the expertise of Richard Horner when the science was hot off the presses.

EAP as a predictive tool for land use planners is the second part. Tim Pringle describes the road map for evolving EAP. With 22 demonstration applications completed and/or in progress, the next step is to develop the rules of thumb for quantifying the financial implications of increased development density.

PART ONE – HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Assessment of Stream Health in Metro Vancouver Region

In the early 1990s, a group of Puget Sound local governments initiated a university-based research centre, secured seed funding for it, and then framed eight key questions for investigation. The eight questions defined areas of research by a team of graduate students under the guidance of Richard Horner.

Chris May led the team and pulled together this original research in his PhD dissertation. His doctoral work is the foundation that the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC has been building on for the past three decades by evolving the Twin Pillars of Stream Integrity, namely Water Balance Accounting and Ecological Accounting.

Genesis for cross-border collaboration

“In 1997, Metro Vancouver established an interagency Stormwater Management Technical Advisory Task Group,” states Robert Hicks, who was staff support for the group

“The 1992 Land Development Guidelines were about doing business differently. It was a best attempt at the time. DFO realized that the status quo was not working. This is why the municipalities were feeling the pressure to change course when the interagency group was established.”

Puget Sound research correlated land use changes with impacts on streams

“So many studies manipulate a single variable out of context with the whole and its many additional variables. We, on the other hand, investigated whole systems in place, tying together measures of the landscape, stream habitat, and aquatic life,” explained Richard Horner in a 2014 conversation.

For two decades, Dr. Chris May had a leadership position in Washington State local government – first with the City of Seattle and then with Kitsap County. The latter was his living laboratory. Because he was Director of the Surface & Stormwater Division, Chis May could put science into practice.

“Working at multiple scales is a must to restore urban streams. You have to go back and address the impacts of legacy development. To move the needle, communities must restore riparian areas,” explained Chris May in a 2023 interview about the Road Map for System Integrity

Metro Vancouver Watershed Health Rating System validated Puget Sound research findings

“We built on Puget Sound research and developed a watershed health rating system for our region. A trend projection from 1996 to 2036 demonstrated how the status quo would lead to a further region-wide decline in stream health,” continued Robert Hicks in a 2024 interview about the reasons Why Watersheds are at Heightened Risk

“When we showed the picture of the Riparian Forest Integrity index to the Board members, they agreed that things had to change. Things will get worse if we do not change our ways,”

PART TWO – NEXT EVOLUTION OF EAP: A predictive tool for use by land planners

“With hindsight, I can say that Metro was ahead of its time and got it right with the RFI index. That early leadership has provided the region with a foundation and a springboard for success in 2025 and beyond,” emphasizes Tim Pringle.

“In hindsight, the RFI idea dropped off the radar screen because the timing was not yet right for it and all the energy was going into the Water Balance Pillar. A generation later, we are resurrecting RFI and adding the EAP dimension to operationalize the Ecological Accounting Pillar.”

“Both the Metro research in the late 1990s and the current EAP research are spatial analyses. The EAP process allows local governments to transcend the numbers and explore the financial impact of land development choices. And it is also about solutions.”

“Metro got it right in the 1990s. By revisiting the 1999 research through the EAP lens, the region is poised to move to a restored and renewed leadership position.”

EAP lens encompasses both the asset management and land planning perspectives

“Planners have a spatial way of looking at land use. So, I imagine that they would like to have a means of understanding a stream from a spatial point of view…what is being measured, what are the metrics for doing that measurement, how do you use it. It has to be that basic.”

“EAP deals with parcels which is as spatial as you can get. The Metro research in the late 1990s was also a spatial analysis. Metro used the science and applied the basics related to loss of riparian and woodland areas (ecosystems) and intrusion of impervious cover in developed areas abutting streams,”

EAP springboard to a regional scale to make the financial case for action in at-risk watersheds

“We have a two-step plan. We have brought the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University into the EAP Partnership. This expands the pool of graduate students to do EAP theses.”

“In 2026, as Step Two, a master’s thesis will create a predictive tool to quantify the financial implications of increased development density and provincial housing policies regarding the Riparian Deficit.”

“We are moving EAP from a primary emphasis on Asset Management to use by planners for spatial analysis related to streams and trees. As we evolve EAP through more projects, and use Sam’s thesis as the springboard, we will be able to say here is the utility for planners and it is based on these rules of thumb,” concludes Tim Pringle.

Living Water Smart in British Columbia Series

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About the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC

Technical knowledge alone is not enough to resolve water challenges facing BC. Making things happen in the real world requires an appreciation and understanding of human behaviour, combined with a knowledge of how decisions are made. It takes a career to figure this out.

The Partnership has a primary goal, to build bridges of understanding and pass the baton from the past to the present and future. To achieve the goal, the Partnership is growing a network in the local government setting. This network embraces collaborative leadership and inter-generational collaboration.