Water Balance Model Partners Forum on April 7 will showcase vision for ‘WBM Express for Homeowners’

Water Balance Model evolves to help local governments ‘achieve more with less’

Local governments in British Columbia are faced with this challenge: the initial capital cost of infrastructure is about 20% of the life-cycle cost; the other 80% largely represents a future unfunded liability. Thus, fiscal constraints provide a powerful impetus for doing business differently to ‘achieve more with less’.

“Population growth in BC’s urban settlement areas is being accommodated to a large degree through redevelopment. From a watershed health and restoration perspective, this creates opportunities to ‘get it right’ the second time. Doing more with less includes ‘designing with nature’ to achieve lower life-cycle costs,” states Richard Boase, Vice-President of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia.

“Success is more likely to follow when a drainage planning process is truly integrated with a blueprint for watershed redevelopment over time. True integration requires a way to link actions at the site scale with outcomes desired at the watershed scale.”

“The Water Balance Model supports ‘design with nature’ strategies. Because the model is a scenario comparison tool, it can create an understanding of the past and compare it to many possible futures. Protecting or restoring watershed health starts with the individual homeowner. This is a big reason for developing the WBM Express.”

To learn more, click on Water Balance Model Partners Forum will showcase vision for ‘WBM Express for Homeowners’.

News Release #2011-09

March 8, 2011