In May 2008, the Government of Alberta released a draft of its highly anticipated Land Use Framework. This Framework, arguably the most important policy initiative in recent years, is meant to address the sense many Albertans have that our activities on the land are increasing, are increasingly damaging, and are happening without a plan. But, will the Land Use Framework consider and address the effects land use has on water?

Over the last few decades our land use in Alberta has intensified and spread further across the landscape. More houses, more roads, more pipelines, more resource development such as forestry, agriculture, and oil and gas operations, to fuel our growth and our insatiable appetite for more have increasingly damaged our natural landscapes. This activity is fragmenting our natural landscape, degrading its soils, and negatively affecting our limited water supplies and aquatic ecosystems. Ultimately what happens on the land affects our water.

Overtime, the effects of all the changes to the landscape (cumulative effects), including the removal of topsoil and vegetation, reductions in pervious surfaces, and injection of toxic and/or contaminated material, can affect landscape-scale watershed functions. Removal, disconnection (fragmentation), and/or pollution of natural features in a landscape force the remaining network to manage the same amount of water with less functional capacity. Removing these functions overtime reduces the landscape's ability to effectively perform ecosystem services. Ecosystem services include flood mitigation, transport and storage of water, sediments, and other materials, and naturally removing harmful toxins, bacteria and sediments (Stevens 2007).

When and where these natural services no longer meet human demands for clean and sufficient water, supplemental infrastructure systems are used — dams, water treatment plants, storm sewers, flood dykes, and so on. While such infrastructure systems are necessary to assure us safe and secure water supplies and protect us from harm, they come at a cost. A cost carried by the taxpayer, most often at the municipal level. Canada's municipal infrastructure deficit has now reached $123 billion (FCM 2007).

To avoid these costs, we need to change how we use land so as to protect our water. Ideally the Land Use Framework will help us do that.

Since 2006, the government has been consulting with Albertans about what should be in the Framework and how it should be implemented. The Framework is meant to provide us with a plan for where we go from here in a controlled and sustaining manner. It's meant to change our course from the process of ad hoc, chaotic development to planned development that protects key natural areas and features that sustain our basic needs — such as clean water.

The Framework "sets out an approach to better manage public and private lands and natural resources to achieve Alberta's long-term economic, environmental and social goals. The framework provides a blueprint for land-use management and decision-making that addresses Alberta's growth pressures" (Government of Alberta 2008).

Does the draft Framework contain what it needs to effectively manage public and private lands while protecting our water? Does the Framework contain what it needs to resolve our sometimes-problematic relationship with the land and water in this province? Time will tell.

The Framework needs:

• An implementation strategy, secured funding, and a plan to integrate policy initiatives in the province
• A strong legal backbone through new legislation
• Effective interim measures to prevent rapid land-use change
• Accountability for monitoring, enforcement, and revisions to plans
• To set thresholds that guide permit decisions and local planning (see the next news story for more on the government's cumulative effects and threshold strategy)

Go to http://www.albertabydesign.ca/ for more information about the Land Use Framework, what's being proposed, what should be in the Framework, and how you can get involved and stay informed.

Resources:

Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). 2007. Danger Ahead: The coming collapse of Canada's municipal infrastructure.

Government of Alberta. June 26, 2008. Frequently asked questions. Accessed: June 30, 2008.

Stevens, C.M.A. 2007. A Methodology for using Ecological Infrastructure in Municipal Land Use Planning and Infrastructure Management. Master's Thesis, Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB.