waterbucket.ca website has a new look!
"Recently, the Partnership made a key decision to create a new front page to the waterbucket.ca website to help strengthen our identity, support forward looking initiatives that tackle some of the most important issues about water sustainability, and to realize exciting new opportunities," reports Mike Tanner, WaterBucket Chair.
"The first step was to develop the branding and logo for the Partnership and this is now prominently displayed on our front page. One of the biggest changes is that the blog is now much more prominently featured. This is because we hope to make the blog a central place for online discussion of issues relating to water sustainability and land management. It is hoped that the blog will draw more people to the site, building a vibrant community in the process." "But this is only the start of new and exciting things to come. Over time we will expand and improve our site to not only continue to be the key to the communication strategy for the Partnership but also to meet our vision to provide a resource-rich, highly interactive 'destination' location for timely and provocative information about water sustainability in British Columbia," concludes Mike Tanner.
July 19, 2011
An Integrated Outreach & Continuing Education Program
"In Beyond the Guidebook 2010: Implementing a New Culture for Urban Watershed Protection and Restoration in British Columbia, the Water Bucket Website and the Water Balance Model are described as the twin engines driving an outreach and continuing education program (OCEP), one that is fully integrated under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan,” states Mike Tanner, Chair of the Water Bucket Website Partnership.
"OCEP promotes a 'water-centric' approach to community planning and development. The program comprises inter-connected elements that give local governments and practitioners the tools and experience to better manage land and water resources. Our website at waterbucket.ca is the key to the communications strategy for the Action Plan."
Universal Access to Information:
“The waterbucket.ca website is designed to provide the complete story on integrated land and water management – why, what, where and how. Water Bucket stories establish expectations about program curricula and event outcomes. To get the word out, we work with our partners to craft email-type news releases that are complete with embedded links. We are finding that these news releases are taking on a life of their own."
“The vision for the Water Bucket website is to provide a resource rich, highly interactive ‘destination location’ for information and communication related to water sustainability in British Columbia. By providing universal access to information we believe we will see improved standards in all aspects of land development and water resource management."
Communities-of-Interest:
The Water Bucket website comprises a family of ‘communities-of-interest’, or COIs, that provide a ready-made platform for advancing a ‘design with nature’ approach to community development. COIs that correspond to elements of the Water Sustainability Action Plan include:
- Convening for Action
- Water-Centric Planning
- Green Infrastructure
- Rainwater Management
- Water Use & Conservation
Informing and Educating:
“The Water Bucket is designed in a magazine style to appeal to specific target audiences. The menu dropdowns within each COI create the 'storyline' and supporting themes. Because we have the Water Bucket, we can record our history even as we are creating it,” explains Mike Tanner.
“Since 2007, Vancouver Island has been the Action Plan demonstration region for a bottom-up approach to informing and educating municipal planners, engineers and others. The experience gained through this process has demonstrated the valuable role that Water Bucket plays in delivering information and sharing lessons learned.”
"We have found it extremely effective to publish news-style stories that create interest in Action Plan programs and events. Our experience is that the use of photos and images is engaging; and attributing quotes to individuals in a conversational style has more impact than dry technical writing.”
