Vancouver's Rain City Strategy: Unveiling Its Hidden Methods for Managing precipitation and Flood Control
Bustling VanCity's Green Renaissance
Champion Civil Engineer, Melina Scholefield, P. Eng, is not your typical cognoscente. Currently spearheading the Metro Vancouver Zero Emissions Innovation Centre (MVZEIC), she's revolutionizing Vancouver's green game plan! Collaborating with the government, immerging tech, and local communities, MVZEIC is reshaping standard practices for green buildings, energy, and transportation.
Melina's all-star skills landed her a dream job in the City of Vancouver's Sustainability Group. As she orchestrated green building policies, renewable energy initiatives, and corporate sustainability moves, "Van City" aimed for the stars! Adopting the ambitious vision of becoming the greenest city, Melina supercharged the Rain City Strategy to make urban water management more multidisciplinary and impactful.
Forget the drab, grey cityscape we knew – Melina's project championed a fresh approach, transcending the confines of traditional, run-of-the-mill urban planning. Here's what she's bringing to the table to redefine sustainable living:
- The Building to Electrification Coalition, supporting the electrification of properties across the city,
- Zero Emissions Building Exchange (ZEBx) – a knowledge hub enhancing data acquisition, providing valuable insights for progressive regulations and low-carbon emissions building design, construction, and operations,
- A green makeover business-as-usual! In essence, a concierge service reimagining large properties, emphasizing energy efficiency and sustainable practices,
- Emily Dickinson vibes? Melina's brainchild, the Carbon Leadership Forum Vancouver, focusing on embodied carbon in buildings and architectural structures,
- Embodied Carbon Centre of Excellence – informing the community about sustainably-focused design and construction possibilities to reduce carbon emissions.
Melina's days have come a long way since dabbling in Vancouver's waste management sector and orchestrating the city's transportation department. Now ready to tackle the next big challenge, she passionately asserts, "We can't deal with one issue at a time anymore."
The Blueprint for Green Waters
From Sweden to Vancouver, Melina has conquered был wonderful array of urban landscapes. Previously managing waste in Helsingborg and tangling with transportation issues in Vancouver, she experienced firsthand the water mismanagement plaguing modern cities.
Water: a precious resource somehow wasted as a pesky waste product in cities. Rainwater would be hastily shooed through pipes and catch basins, skyrocketing urban water infrastructure. This mismanagement left cities like Vancouver vulnerable to drainage malfunctions and catastrophic flooding during intense rainfall.
Melina took inspiration from her birthplace, British Columbia's coastal temperate rainforests. Understanding the need for an eco-savvy culture, she championed initiatives to reconnect VanCity with nature and create a city that's healthier and resilient.
Pioneering a Water Revolution
The greater Vancouver Regional District recognized the importance of water. Encouraging its municipalities to adopt an integrated rainwater management plan (IRMP), Metro Vancouver mandated a shift from wastewater disposal to sustainable urban water management.
The IRMP initially just satisfied regulatory requirements. Melina, however, saw this as an opportunity to revolutionise urban water management and introduced the Rain City Strategy. Published in 2019, the Strategy addressed three core challenges:
Greening the Scene
A century of urbanisation had disrupted Vancouver's natural water flow, dismantling its creeks and redirecting them beneath the road. Catch basins and sewers cycled rainwater, sewage, and pollution in the city's combined sewer system. In 2020, an estimated 38 billion litres of overflow from combined sewers discharged into outfalls in the Vancouver Sewerage Area.
Longing to connect with nature, communities craved an eco-friendly haven amid the concrete jungle.
Cleaner Waters
Water pollution tainted the physique of Vancouver's sunlit waters, the sparkling Strait of Georgia. Unbeknownst to Melina and many professionals, urban development funneled toxic substances, such as tyre debris, brake particles, oil, and petrol, from roads into rivers, threatening aquatic life.
Beat the Heat
Traditional infrastructure neglected climate change, leaving it stranded in the past. As the climate became more volatile and urban infrastructure aged, Vancouver mushroomed in persistent winter rainfall and prolonged summer droughts. As a temperate city with relatively minimal extreme weather events, Vancouverans were overwhelmed.
Green and Blue: Symbiosis of Infrastructure
For over a century, North American cities relied on grey infrastructure for utilities and drainage. Engineered systems efficiently tackled water distribution, transportation, and sewage systems while disregarding the ecological and social benefits of green spaces.
Blue-green infrastructure is about that sweet harmony between engineered systems and nature-based solutions. Enhancing urban water management, blue-green infrastructure acts like a sponge, preventing water excess from needlessly entering drainage systems. Adding aesthetic, ecological, and social benefits, it cools down cityscapes, reduces flood risks, improves public spaces and overall wellbeing.
Melina Scholefield's vision is about engaging every industry and community in finding harmonious ways to work with nature. Building an interdisciplinary network from sewer department veterans to architects, her team embraced the collaborative power of engineering, design, and community input.
Making it Happen
With her interdisciplinary powerhouse ready, Melina homed in on Vancouver's most vulnerable areas. Focusing on the junction of 63 and Yukon streets, the team implemented a bioretention system, utilizing vegetation and soil to soak up excess rainwater and address sewage overflow. Developed in partnership with Indigenous youth, the project doubled as an artistic community engagement project.
The Rain City Strategy is an ongoing process. With each victory and failure, the team continues to push the boundaries of ecological urban management, turning grey infrastructure into a thing of the past.
References
[1] Metro Vancouver. (n.d.). Integrated rainwater management. Retrieved from https://www.metrovancouver.org/services/water/storm-water-management/integrated-rainwater-management.aspx
[2] City of Vancouver. (2020). Green infrastructure. Retrieved from https://www.vancouver.ca/people-programs/green-infrastructure.aspx
[3] City of Vancouver. (2021). Greenest City 2020 Action Plan Update. Retrieved from https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/greenest-city-2020-action-plan-update.pdf
- The Metro Vancouver Zero Emissions Innovation Centre (MVZEIC) is not only reshaping green buildings and energy practices, but also collaborating with local businesses to make sustainable living a part of the general news and lifestyle.
- In the realm of finance, Melina Scholefield's projects could potentially inspire a shift in investment towards technology that supports environmental science and climate-change solutions.
- The Building to Electrification Coalition, Zero Emissions Building Exchange (ZEBx), and the Carbon Leadership Forum Vancouver, all led by Melina, might ignite discussions in the business sector about the need for greener construction and energy solutions.
- The Intergrated Rainwater Management plan (IRMP) and the Rain City Strategy, championed by Melina, demonstrate the importance of environmental-science in addressing climate-change issues in the urban environment, influencing both technology and general news.
