TRACK 1, DAY 2
Expanding Peel’s Asset Management Program – Undertaking an Engineered Green Infrastructure Inventory and Condition Assessment on Region of Peel Properties
ABSTRACT
The Region of Peel’s infrastructure has a replacement value of approximately $34.3 Billion. Maintaining these existing assets in a state of good repair is critical to provide service levels that the public expects.
As part of the Region’s commitment to continuous improvement and to meet Ontario Regulation 588/17 the Region is currently expanding its asset management program to include natural and engineered green infrastructure (GI) assets.
The Region has a long history of implementing GI on regional roads and across its portfolio of properties. However, for the Region’s properties, the documentation of these GI assets was often limited, with the assets lumped in with conventional “grey” asset classes, like landscapes or roofs, or were undocumented. This meant that the Region had limited insights into the condition and maintenance needs of its GI assets on its properties.
To address these gaps, the Region has partnered with staff from the Sustainable Technologies Evaluation Program (STEP) at Credit Valley Conservation and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA). The project team was able to work together and draw on their different areas of expertise to conduct a GI inventory and condition assessment project spanning over 20 Region of Peel properties.
This work included conducting desktop analysis, field reconnaissance, mapping, data collection, database creation, and reporting. This work has created a robust GI asset management framework for the Region that documents how many GI assets the Region has across its properties, where they are located, their condition and how the assets work together at each site as part of a stormwater management treatment train.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Alexandra Veglio, Credit Valley Conservation
Alexandra Veglio is a Specialist on the Integrated Water Management team at Credit Valley Conservation. With over a decade of experience working in water resources and green infrastructure, she has a strong understanding of the importance and function of water in our environment.
Her experience with subwatershed planning, environmental monitoring, project implementation, and operation and maintenance of green infrastructure has given her an extensive background on how these features function both for water quality and quantity control, and how to ensure they function long-term.
Chris Despins, Region of Peel
Chris is a Climate Change Adaptation Advisor with the Office of Climate Change and Energy Management at the Region of Peel. His work includes assessing risks to the Region’s infrastructure assets from climate change hazards and identifying adaptation strategies to make infrastructure more resilient.
Chris specializes in Green Infrastructure and flood risk mitigation, and his current projects include the Enterprise Climate Change Risk Assessment, natural and engineered green infrastructure inventory and condition assessments, and an assessment of the vulnerability of watercourse crossings and roads to climate change.