Water Balance Model, Powered By QUALHYMO

Incorporating lessons learned to date...to protect stream health

Two rainfall-runoff simulation tools have been merged to create a decision support tool that integrates the site with the stream and the watershed. To download a document that provides a technical overview of the considerations that shaped model integration, click on the following link to download Beyond the Guidebook - Why the Water Balance Model Powered by QUALHYMO.

The document incorporates the presentation slides developed by Jim Dumont, designated by the British Columbia Inter-Governmental Partnership as its Engineering Applications Authority, and delivered at the Beyond the Guidebook Seminar held in November 2007. The slides are complete with explanatory comments made by Jim Dumont at the seminar. His presentation was organized in four parts; and he explained why the models have been integrated, and what this integration will accomplish.

Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia set in motion a chain of outcomes that has resulted in British Columbia being recognized internationally as a leader in implementing a natural systems approach to rainwater management in the urban environment. “Beyond the Guidebook takes the Guidebook to the next level of evolution”, stated Jim Dumont at the beginning of his presentation.

“To help engineers in particular go Beyond the Guidebook, we have developed an analytical methodology that connects source control evaluation with stream health assessment”, Jim Dumont explained, “Through implementation of "green infrastructure" policies and practices, the desired outcome in going Beyond the Guidebook is to apply what we have learned at the site scale over the past five years…so that we can truly protect and/or restore stream health in urban watersheds.”

Posted February 2008