Water Sustainability

Despite Canada's position as one of the few relatively water-rich nations of the world, freshwater resources in this country are under threat from pollution, wasteful habits, poor management, increasing urbanization and climate change. Our current approach to water management continues to reinforce the supply-oriented status quo.

Establishing a demand management paradigm for water in Canada requires careful attention to the broad issues of governance – a main focus of the Water Sustainability Project at POLIS. Who makes decisions and how they are made has significant impacts on how communities address issues of water scarcity and sustainability – whether they use conventional supply-side approaches or innovative approaches based on demand management and conservation.

Watershed governance is a specific manifestation of the broader concept of ecological governance, encompassing the institutional and legal shift toward ecologically based water allocations; ecosystem-based land and water use decisions; and comprehensive demand management and soft path approaches. By examining all actions in the context of the watershed, we begin to move toward an ecosystem governance regime. The focus moves to managing people within the watershed, not trying to control the watershed itself.

This emerging field of action research addresses issues such as institutional and legal reform to re-invigorate the role of government – transforming governments from top-down managers to facilitators of local action in the context of a broader public trust. Watershed governance also recognizes the critical role of civil society as a key facilitator of change and innovation.

The Water Sustainability Project at POLIS researches and promotes sustainable water management. Visit www.poliswaterproject.org for full publications and project details.
 

Key Publications

• The Soft Path for Water in a Nutshell (POLIS, Revised 2007)
• Thinking Beyond Pipes and Pumps (POLIS, 2007)
  - La version française
• At a Watershed: Ecological Governance and Sustainable Water Management in Canada (POLIS, 2005)

Recent Publications

• Greenhouse Gas and Energy Co-Benefits of Water Conservation (2009)
• Water Conservation Planning Guide for British Columbia's Communities (2009)
• Going with the Flow? Evolving Water Allocations and the Potential and Limits of Water Markets in Canada (2009)
• Making the Most of the Water We Have (2009)
• Water Licenses and Conservation: Future Directions for Land Trusts in British Columbia (2008)
• Changing the Flow: a Blueprint for Federal Action on Water (2007)

Related Projects and Initiatives

• Making the Most of the Water We Have, by  David Brooks, Oliver Brandes and Stephen Gurman is the first book to comprehensively present and apply the water soft path approach.
• POLIS is a core academic partner in three separate Canadian Water Network initiatives that are expected to run through 2012:
  
  • A Canadian Water Security Index led by Karen Bakker of the University of British Columbia; 
  • Governance for Watershed-Based Source Water Protection in Canada: A National Assessment led by Rob de Loë of the University of Waterloo;
  • More Value from the Same Water: Maximizing Water's Sustainable Contribution to the Canadian Economy led by professors Diane Dupont and Steven Renzetti of Brock University.
• POLIS worked with Forum for Leadership on Water (FLOW) Canada, formerly the Gordon Water Group of Concerned Citizens on Changing the Flow: A Blueprint for Federal Action on Freshwater and Clean Water, Green Jobs: A Stimulus Package for Sustainable Water Investments
• POLIS is teaming up with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to deliver the National Water Conservation Workshop Roadshow
• The 2009 Future of Water Workshop is co-sponsored by POLIS
• Hagan Creek Watershed Project, is a former POLIS project launched in 1997 that evolved into Peninsula Streams