Over the past 6 months, Green Analytics had the honour of being the lead author of the Natural Assets Initiative’s (NAI) recently released guidance document for natural asset management. The guidance document was created to help local governments plan for the management of our too often ignored natural assets.
For more details on the guidance document and to download a copy, refer to NAI’s release announcement here: Nature is Infrastructure: New Guidebook Bridges Gap in Infrastructure Planning – NAI | Natural Assets Initiative (mnai.ca)
The Green Analytics team is proud to have been the lead author of this Guidebook, particularly as it was informed by a group of experts from across the country. It represents the beginning of a living document to advance the application of natural asset management in Canada.
The Guidebook is a key early step towards standardizing the incorporation of natural assets into municipal asset management planning. Working with NAI, Green Analytics benefited from a collaboration with a community of practitioners, including staff from local governments and Ontario Conservation Authorities, who contributed input, content, shared their experiences and provided feedback on drafts. The collaborative approach established through the development of the Guidebook positions us for future iterations as this field of study continues to evolve and improve. While none of us have all the answers yet, by tapping into our collective knowledge and experiences we can develop the necessary tools and skills to ensure natural assets are properly monitored and managed in perpetuity. In doing so, we safeguard the services they provide, and which we depend on, for future generations.
Notably, the release of this Guidebook is positioned as the First Edition. While the document provides a fantastic step toward laying out foundational guidance material, our collective maturity as an industry on natural asset management is still relatively low. We are committed to continuing to advance the Guidebook and natural asset management planning.
Opportunities for future improvements relate to accounting for regional differences, considering population growth, and assessing asset criticality. Our intention is that this document takes on a life of its own and becomes an expression of the collective knowledge that currently exists and continues to grow across Canada.
To download a copy of the Guidebook, visit the following: https://mnai.ca/nature-is-infrastructure-new-guidebook-bridges-gap-in-infrastructure-planning/
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