2008 Vancouver Island Water Balance Model Forum featured Cowichan Valley case study applications

Living Water Smart in British Columbia: 

Doing Business Differently

In October 2008, the Cowichan Valley Regional District hosted a ‘by invitation only’ Water Balance Model Forum. This was part of the implementation program for Beyond the Guidebook: The New Business As Usual, and was organized under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia. 

The Forum was designed to add depth to Living Water Smart, the provincial government’s vision and plan to keep British Columbia's water healthy and secure for the future. "The Province and local government are collaborating to develop a suite of user-friendly tools and approaches for assessment purposes and to provide consistency when reviewing development applications. The web-based Water Balance Model for British Columbia is one of these tools," Jay Bradley, speaking on behalf of the Province, informed the Forum audience.

"The Forum was conducted as a hybrid-training workshop to inform, educate and enable those who wish to apply the Water Balance Model to support a Design with Nature approach to land development. The Forum featured a roundtable sharing of case study experience related to achieving runoff-based performance targets," reports Kate Miller, chair of the inter-governmental Cowichan Valley Regional Team.

"Willing owners/developers and their planning/design consultants collaborated with the Water Balance Model team to develop  applications at the watershed, neighbourhood and site scales. These examples provided the technical foundation for sharing, exploration and cross-fertilization of ideas on how to implement green infrastructure effectively."

Building on the Vancouver Island experience, the City of Surrey hosted the first Metro Vancouver Water Balance Model Forum in March 2009. This learning event adapted the Cowichan Valley format for establishing local government expectations.

TO LEARN MORE:
For the complete story on the Forum, click on 2008 Cowichan Valley Water Balance Model Forum: List of Water Bucket Stories. 

These stories are consolidated in a downloadable document which can be accessed by clicking on Summary Report on Cowichan Valley Water Balance Model Forum.