The Soft Path for Water
Taking its name from the energy soft path of the 1970s, the “soft path” for water is a comprehensive management and planning approach that moves demand management to the next level. The soft path unleashes the full potential of demand management by simultaneously changing water-use habits, technologies, and practices. Working within ecological limits, the soft path promotes local public participation to ensure sustainability of our water resources. Soft path planning looks 20 to 50 years into the future and proposes major changes in our water infrastructure and institutions. The focus is on designing and implementing policies and strategies today that will meet new water demand through more efficient use of existing supplies, reducing or even eliminating the need for further supply-side developments.
The Soft Path for Water in a Nutshell makes the case for long-term integrated water conservation and acts as a practical guide to navigate this new area of water management.
Research Reports
Making the Most of the Water We Have is the first book anywhere in the world to comprehensively present and apply the water soft path approach. This publication focuses on various Canadian detailed studies but also takes a global perspective looking at examples and experiences from around the world. It demonstrates that soft path analysis is both analytical and practical, and emphasizes that Soft paths are not only conceptually attractive, but can also be economically and politically feasible.
Check out the book review from the Environmental Forum January/February 2010 issue.
Check out information on the University of Victoria course April 14th, to April 28th, 2010.
The Soft Path for Water in a Nutshell provides an overview of the steps involved in soft path planning, illustrates how soft path planning differs from conventional, supply management, and discusses the potential for this innovative approach to develop water sustainability in Canada. Originally published in November 2005, revised with research results in September 2007.
Related Publications and Media:
The Soft Path for Water: A Social approach to the physical problem of achieving sustainable water management by Oliver M Brandes and David Brooks (Friends of the Earth Canada) in HORIZONS, PRI, Volume 9, Number 1, May 2006.
Changing Perspectives – Changing Paradigms: Taking the ‘soft path’ to water sustainability in the Okanagan Basin [abstract] by Oliver M Brandes and Lynn Kriwoken, Canadian Water Resources Journal, Volume 31(2): 75-90, 2006.
Discussion Papers, Briefing Notes and Case Studies
This Soft Path Strategy for Salt Spring Island was developed by the Water Sustainability Project team in collaboration with the Salt Spring Island Water Council. Salt Spring is the largest and most populous of the Gulf Islands and has a year round population of approximately 10,000 which doubles during the summer with tourists and temporary residents. Water supply and quality are issues on parts of Salt Spring, with some drinking water lakes being close to their capacity to meet current demand and future commitments for additional supply, and difficulties with private wells particularly on the north end of the island.
This strategy offers direction to Salt Spring's growing water use by recommending a commitment to “preserving water supplies for the next generation.”
This Soft Path Strategy for the City of Abbotsford and District of Mission was developed by the Water Sustainability Project team in consultation with Abbotsford Mission Water and Sewer Commission (AMWSC) staff beginning in December 2008. Heavy growth has increasingly strained the region’s water supplies, forcing the AMWSC to choose to either build costly infrastructure or to defer a need for new infrastructure by engaging in long-term water conservation planning.
The Strategy seeks to provide direction to this second option by recommending a commitment to “preserving water supplies for the next generation.”
This case study is a “real world” application of the soft path concept for the Town of Oliver in the Okanagan Basin, British Columbia. In this semi-arid area, the “myth of water abundance” remains firmly entrenched even though the region’s water supplies and aquatic ecosystems are under stress. Fortunately, a new paradigm of water management is emerging—an approach focused primarily on water conservation and efficiency, with the potential to ensure long-term sustainability and social and economic prosperity. This report provides an overview of the soft path approach, an analysis of three potential scenarios in the Okanagan, and recommendations for the community to take steps towards developing a sustainable approach to water management.
Soft path planning employs backcasting, a planning approach that begins by envisioning possible future states, then works backwards to connect a desired future to the present by integrating policies, programs and technological innovation. This report applies the Urban Water Soft Path “Back of the Envelope” Backcasting Framework (BEBF) to compare various possible scenarios of future water use at the community scale (i.e. municipality or region). The framework involves the application of an analytical tool—the Water Soft Path Scenario Builder—to determine the macro impact of different “packages” of micro measures (i.e. policies, programs and technologies) on total water use. The main goal is to illustrate the potential of a comprehensive approach to water conservation and efficiency, with the initial results pointing to recommendations for specific actions in the future.
The POLIS WaterSmart Scenario Builder tool for communities was launched in May 2009! See WSP Toolkit for details.
