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On January 30-31, 2024, SAW staff and other affiliates attended the 16th Annual Saskatchewan Association of Watersheds Conference in Regina. The theme this year’s conference was ‘Building Resilience Through Urban Water Systems’ and we connected with innovative minds to learn about techniques to create nature-based solutions that can be used to build resiliency to climate change. There were a wide range of speakers, including researchers and academics, engineers and technicians, municipal workers, and water stewards.
Some of the main highlights from the conference included keynote speaker Brad Lancaster, who presented on rainwater harvesting and wastewater management. He highlighted the importance of balancing incoming rainwater with evaporation in any given city. He gave examples of how cities can better utilize stormwater instead of having it diverted quickly out to larger water bodies. Some of the techniques he touched on included creating curb cuts with trees and small gardens, harvesting household greywater for use in the yard, and the correct orientation of buildings to passively harvest solar energy.
Robb Lukes and Paul Mankiewicz, both of whom work with green infrastructure, gave examples of ways in which their respective cities (Vancouver and New York) are building bioretention implements to deal with urban increase in incoming rainwater. These included rain gardens, rainwater tree trenches, infiltration trenches, green roofs, swales, and more.
Richard Grosshans presented on urban floating wetlands and their many benefits, one being their ability to take up excessive nutrients and even antibiotics from old stormwater ponds or other water bodies.
Conference attendees were left with hope, inspiration, and many ideas of how we can better utilize and care for water resources, both in our cities and at home – increasing our communities’ resiliency to climatic change.
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