The purpose of the ActionH2O Water Sustainability Charter is to commit local government councils across Canada to achieving local water conservation goals. The ActionH2O Water Sustainability Charter Toolkit gives an overview of how community groups can use the Charter to engage local governments, including quick tips and strategies.
The Water Conservation Planning Quick Guide highlights some of the leading available resources that support effective water conservation planning including Planning Manuals and Case Studies.
This Blueprint for a Comprehensive Water Conservation and Efficiency Strategy was prepared in anticipation of the development of Ontario's Provincial Water Conservation and Efficiency Strategy. This policy paper synthesizes research on progressive water conservation policies into a comprehensive plan of action. Implementation of the recommended actions would position Ontario as a leader on conservation. The Blueprint has been endorsed by a number of NGOs and will be utilized to provide input to the province's consultation process.
Western notions of modernity must necessarily be tempered by an understanding that certain natural resources - especially air, freshwater and oceans - are central to our very existence; and that governments must exercise a continuing fiduciary duty to sustain the essence of those resources for the long-term use and enjoyment of the entire populace. Although Canadians have been slow to embrace the public trust notion, it has played a central role in water and environmental management in the United States since the 1970s; in that country, it mirrors an historic expansion of public consciousness and concern away from immediate private interests to the interests of others in society, future generations of humans, and even non-human life. A number of changes have taken place in Canada over the past few decades that suggest the time may right to move the public trust concept, or at least something akin to it, forward in the Canadian context; the only question that remains is whether policy-makers or the judiciary will take the lead.
This detailed policy paper explores the options and opportunities for water governance reform in British Columbia. The paper was developed to assist the Ministry of Environment with its commitment to address water management and modernize the 100 year old Water Act that is no longer able to deal with existing and emerging water issues in the province. Recognizing that governance alone cannot correct inadequate water management, but poor governance will almost certainly prevent effective management, the report outlines three possible paths forward and emphasizes the need to build institutional and ecosystem resilience.
In November 2008, Water Project Leader Oliver M Brandes, as part of a group of leading Canadian scientists, water law and policy experts and environmental activists, helped develop and release a landmark Freshwater Declaration that calls on all levels of government to take urgent action to develop an integrated freshwater strategy for Canada.
A report that provides concise direction on how citizens expect governments to manage freshwater resources.
Soft path planning employs backcasting, a planning approach that begins by envisioning possible future states, then works backwards to connect a desired future to the present by integrating policies, programs and technological innovation. This report applies the Urban Water Soft Path “Back of the Envelope” Backcasting Framework (BEBF) to compare various possible scenarios of future water use at the community scale (i.e. municipality or region). The framework involves the application of an analytical tool—the Water Soft Path Scenario Builder—to determine the macro impact of different “packages” of micro measures (i.e. policies, programs and technologies) on total water use. The main goal is to illustrate the potential of a comprehensive approach to water conservation and efficiency, with the initial results pointing to recommendations for specific actions in the future.
The POLIS WaterSmart Scenario Builder tool for communities was launched in May 2009! See WSP Toolkit for details.
A working paper, first presented at the Canadian Water Resources Association 59th Annual Conference in in Toronto, Ontario, June 4-7, 2006. The concept of ecological governance is applied to investigate why and how current approaches to water allocation must evolve to address scarcity and protect ecosystems.
The POLIS Water Project and BC's Ministry of Water Land and Air Protection collaborated on this presentation at the CWRA conference "Water - Our Limiting Resource" in Kelowna, BC in February 23-25, 2005.
A briefing paper presented at a workshop for BC's Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection on July 20, 2004. The WSP team presented POLIS' proposed action plans for the provincial government to implement urban water demand management.
