Bob Sandford

Water, Weather and the

Future of the West

Bob Sandford began his work with UN-linked initiatives as Chair of the United Nations International Year of Mountains in 2002. Bob was also chair of the United Nations International Year of Fresh Water and Wonder of Water Initiative in Canada in 2003 - 2004. These celebrations focused on the growing importance of water to ecological and cultural heritage in Canada.

As Chair of the United Nations International Year of Mountains initiative in Canada in 2002, he confronted the urgent need to dispel the deeply held myth of limitless abundance of water in Canada and to work toward creating a new water ethic in this country. Through the UN International Year of Fresh Water and Wonder of Water Initiative, and the UN Water for Life Decade partnership, Bob has done much to raise the public profile of water and water-related climate change issues in Canadian West.

Through collaboration with researchers and politicians, publications, vigorous regional and national television public service campaigns, conferences, public policy forums and the coordination thousands of public events offered by partners, Bob is achieving United Nations’ global sustainability goals locally on behalf of all Canadians.

Bob is presently the Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative of the United Nations International Water for Life Decade, an initiative that aims to advance long-term water quality and availability issues in response to climate change in this country and abroad. In this capacity,

A Lifetime Committed to the Understanding of Nature, History & Culture

Bob Sandford has spent a lifetime helping Canadians and their guests to understand the nature and value of the landscapes in which they live. He began his career with Parks Canada where he pioneered innovative new ways to use audio-visual approaches to broaden the appeal of interpretation. He then struck out on his own consulting on behalf of Parks Canada with every major operator in the mountain West and, later, advising on adaptations to change in every national park in Western Canada. During this period, he produced some 125 audio-visual programs on various natural and human history themes and then went on to produce award-winning films on the importance of our natural heritage to western Canadian identity.

During the next stage of Bob’s career, he used his extensive experience and base of connections to organize bold new partnership initiatives that broke down adversarial barriers between national and provincial parks, tourism, industry and the environmental movement. These initiatives started small with historical commemorations such as the centennial of the discovery of the Columbia Icefields in 1998 and the 100th anniversary of the birth of mountaineering in Canada which he organized in association with Canadian Pacific Railway, Parks Canada, the Alpine Club of Canada and other partners in 1999.

These commemorations led to the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Alberta in 2000, the first international commemoration of this kind to be held in the Canadian Rockies. The success of this event led to Bob being presented to the Prime Minister of Japan and to his being awarded the Bill March Memorial, One Step Beyond Summit of Excellence Award at the Banff Mountain Festival in 2001.

The scale of the partnership initiatives Bob organized grew exponentially with the Year of the Great Bear program in 2001 which focused on the role the grizzly plays as an indicator of ecosystem health in the mountain West. This very ambitious initiative involved 85 partners who, together, offered some 7000 (seven thousand) public events from Montana to the Yukon to bring public attention to new scientific knowledge about the habitat preferences and habits of bears and new human habits related to travel in bear country.

The success of the Year of the Great Bear led to Bob being invited by Parks Canada to be the Chair of the United Nations Year of Mountains initiative in 2002. Though focused principally in the Alberta Rockies, this partnership orchestrated the presentation of some 6000 events in mountain regions from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Newfoundland in celebration of the importance of mountains to our way of life in Canada.

Bob Sandford also found the time during this very busy period to write, edit or publish some 20 books on the nature, history and culture of western Canada. Much of this publication activity centred around the Alpine Club of Canada, for which he acted in the capacity of Vice President of Mountain Culture for 14 years. It was in recognition of this work that Bob Sandford was made an Honorary Member of the Association of Mountain Guides in 1999.

While all of these achievements are worthy in their own right, his most significant work began after the UN Year of Mountains in 2002 in work that focused on the state and management of fresh water in Canada. This work has been aimed at raising the profile of water issues by actively placing Canadian attitudes toward use and management into a larger global context.

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Helping Canadians Understand and Value Their Most Precious Natural Resource

There is a great deal of concern emerging regarding water scarcity in the Canadian West and in particular in the dry regions of Alberta and Southern Saskatchewan. There is a pressing need for concerted efforts and long-term commitment towards addressing issues related to water quality and promoting the sustainability of water resources. Without these efforts water quality and availability issues may result in lasting environmental damage and limit future social and economic development.

Bob Sandford continues to work tirelessly on all of these fronts. These efforts began with the examination of the role of uplands as water towers during the UN International Year of Mountains and will hopefully continue to the close of the United Nations Water for Life Decade in 2015 and beyond. There have been a number of interesting projects and stages in this work.

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The United Nations International Year of Fresh Water & Wonder of Water Initiative

Supported by Environment Canada, Parks Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada and the Columbia Basin Trust, the Wonder of Water initiative used the United Nations Inter-national Year of Fresh Water in 2003 as a vehicle for creating a network of some 85 partner organizations whose collective aim was to enhance public understanding and appreciation of how our country has been shaped by what water is and by what water does.

Though focused principally in Western Canada, partners across the country used the United Nations International Year of Fresh Water as a foundation for a two-year celebration of the importance of water to our way of life. The initiative not only reached a great number of Canadians with important messages about how water shapes the land upon which we live, and how it defines us as a nation; it also taught organizers and partners a great deal about what has to be done in Canada to ensure that water availability and quality problems do not limit economic and social development in this country in the future.

Over the course of the two year initiative, partners in the UN Year of Fresh Water and Wonder of Water initiative offered some 8,000 public events from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Newfoundland. It is estimated that partners in this initiative reached some 2.6 million Canadians directly with messages about the importance of water to our way of life. It is estimated that an additional 18 million contacts were made through newspaper stories and editorials, television news stories and programs, and through an on-going public service campaign broadcast free by the Global Television Network.

A  DVD containing the ten public service announcements broadcast by Global Television was created for use by partners. Each of these announcements were broadcast more than 400 times out of each of four Global Television stations in Western Canada.

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Water and our Way of Life
written by Bob Sandford
and published in 2003 to celebrate
the UN Year of Freshwater in Canada

The Wonder of Water initiative allowed partners to learn a great deal about the programs that need to be put into service and the communications tools that need to be employed if we want Canadians to productively reconsider national myths about water. Many of the main partners in the UN Year of Fresh Water are anxious to continue cooperating with one another in order to build on the foundation created by this initiative to advance public education on water through established high profile communications channels. The vehicle that Bob Sandford selected for continuing this partnership, and achieving national water conservation gains, was the United Nations “Water for Life” Decade.
 

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The Canadian Partnership for the United Nations Decade of Action

“Water for Life”

Bob Sandford recognized that Canadians could advance their own understanding of fresh water issues and move more quickly toward positive action by seeing our situation in a global context. Sustainability targets set by the Millennium Declaration of 2000 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 demonstrated a global willingness to address water availability and quality issues at the global level. In was in recognition of the importance of these issues, that the UN General Assembly proclaimed the year 2003 as the International Year of Fresh Water. In recognition of a global water crisis, the UN General Assembly then went on to proclaim the period from 2005 to 2015 as the international decade for action on “Water for Life.” When the United Nations “Water for Life” decade came into formal existence on World Water Day, March 22nd, 2005, Bob Sandford had already organized an initiative in Canada.

Bob Sandford recognized that the UN “Water for Life” Decade presented a huge opportunity to build on the partnerships and successful programming developed during the United Nations International Year of Fresh Water and Wonder of Water initiative in Canada. The objectives of the Canadian Partnership of the United Nations “Water for Life” Decade in Canada were adapted to advance federal, provincial and municipal goals for improving the understanding of the importance of water to our way of life in jurisdictions across Canada.

Through the UN Year of Mountains and UN Year of Fresh Water initiatives, Bob learned that many organizations and agencies in Canada like to think in global terms. One major partner in particular, Global Television, understood the concept. The network offered the Canadian Partnership of the UN Water for Life Decade generous free public service announcement broadcasts NATIONALLY if it could get 10 partners to produce the spots at a standard acceptable for broadcast.

The public announcements produced through the Canadian Partnership of the UN Water for Life Decade began being broadcast  nationally in slots that include prime time all across Canada on the Global Television network. The partners in this initiative include the Provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba, the Canadian Water Network, the University of Lethbridge, the Columbia Basin Trust, Niagara Flapperless Water Conservation Solutions and the City of Toronto. This campaign will continue until mid-2008.

This partnership has demonstrated that a link to the UN makes partners feel they are doing something important for the world by doing something important for Canada. By thinking global and acting locally, we become better Canadians and world citizens.

Another major contribution Bob has made in support of better water conservation and management has been the cultivation of the Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy, in which he became involved as Canada’s first representative in 2004.

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Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy

The Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy was created in 1996. It is named for Richard Rosenberg, the founder and former Chairman of the Bank of America. Upon Mr. Rosenberg's retirement in 1994, the Bank of America endowed the University of California in his name with resources to help support an invitational biennial water forum for the world's leading water scholars and senior water management practitioners.  The main thrust of these Forums is the resolution of conflict emerging from trans-boundary water issues. The first of these Forums was held in San Francisco, U.S.A.; Barcelona, Spain; Canberra, Australia and Ankara, Turkey

As a result of Bob Sandford’s efforts, this world-class forum came to Canada to study the way we manage water. The 5th Biennial Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy was held in Banff, Canada between September 6th and 11th, 2006. 

The principal sponsors of the Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy are the University of California and the Bank of America. Local co-sponsors for the 5th Forum included Alberta Environment, Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Water Research, Alberta Irrigation Projects Association, The Banff Centre, The Max Bell Foundation, The Calgary Foundation, the Columbia Basin Trust, Zaragoza EXPO2008 and the United Nations Water for Life Decade initiative in Canada.

Participants in the Forum included 52 scholars and water managers from 24 countries. The theme of the Forum was: “Upland Watershed Management in an Era of Global Climate Change.” The Forum included a two day pre-Forum field trip through the UNESCO Canadian Rockies World Heritage Site to examine modern upland watershed practices, two days of formal presentations and a post-Forum field trip to the Columbia River Basin, which was the subject of a case study at Rosenberg Forum IV held in Ankara, Turkey in 2006. 

A substantial document outlining lessons that Canada and Alberta can learn from the case studies and the discussion that formed the foundation of the Rosenberg Forum in Banff was released in February of 2007. It is expected that these recommendations will shape public policy with respect to water in Canada for years to come.

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Actions That Speak Louder Than Words

Bob Sandford and the
UN Water for Life Decade
“Water Car”
Toyota Prius Hybrid

Each of the above named initiatives provided new perspectives on the nature and importance of water to the public.  They showcased education-based partner events and celebrations that underscored Canada’s physical and cultural relationship to freshwater. They profiled leading edge Canadian initiatives in water conservation and stewardship.  They created durable partnerships that will continue to broaden our understanding and appreciation of Canada’s water resources long into the future.

It is estimated that partners in the Wonder of Water initiative alone reached over 2.6 million Canadians directly with messages about the importance of water to our way of life. It is estimated that an additional 18 million contacts were made through newspaper stories and editorials, television news stories and programs, and through an on-going public service campaign broadcast free by the Global Television Network.

The Water for Life Decade television campaign will be even more effective. It is estimated that 1.4 million will see each prime time public service announcement broadcast. Even non-prime time slots will be viewed by no fewer than 400,000 Canadians. It is anticipated that the campaign produced for the UN Water for Life Decade will achieve more than 100 million television contacts alone over the two year period in which the water-focuses public service announcements will be broadcast.

Anyone interested is invited to see these public service announcements on the UN Water for Life Decade website at www.thinkwater.ca.

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Through these initiatives partners learned that many Canadians are having a great deal of difficulty seeing and believing what is happening right in front of their very eyes with respect to water quality and availability. Most still believe the centuries-old myth of complete water abundance, and are struggling with the fact that the country’s population and resource development activities may at last be coming up against infrastructure and water availability limitations.

This change in Canada’s water situation has happened quite quickly. In a single generation, we have gone from being a country that was internationally proud of the fact that we could drink out of any sparkling stream, river or lake, to a country genuinely and justifiably concerned about water quality and quantity now and in the future. Despite this, many Canadians do not appear to want to acknowledge these issues for fear of what they say about the sustainability of current levels of prosperity and the potential for growth in the future.

These initiatives have also taught us a great deal about the programs that need to be put into service and the communications tools that need to be employed if we want Canadians to productively reconsider national myths about water. They have also provided the foundation for new ways of reaching people with new perspectives on water management. By cultivating close relationships in both the scientific community and the media, Bob Sandford has become a positive and reasoned voice with respect to water issues in western Canada.

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Other Water and Water-Related Climate Change Achievements

In November of 2008, Bob attended the Pugwash Freshwater Expert Roundtable, Global Issues Project, where he voted to endorse the Canadian Pugwash Freshwater Declaration.

Bob is the Director of the Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative (WWCRC), a not-for-profit research institute that promotes understanding of climate impacts on river systems originating in the Rocky Mountains. Bob also offers scientific research analysis and interpretation for the Alberta Water Research Institute (AWRI). In addition Bob sits on the Expert Panel for the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) that is presently focusing on Canadian water policy. He is a member of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation’s expert Forum for Leadership on Water (FLOW).

Contemporary water quality and availability challenges in Western Canada cannot be separated from the population and land-use issues that created them. Bob Sandford is involved in a broad range of on- going projects aimed at positive adaptive response to climate issues as a means to create a win-win-win opportunities for residents in western river basins to address the region’s three most pressing threats in tandem.

The object of any effort to address and adapt to existing and projected climate impacts should be to ensure that all actions also simultaneously lead to

1. integration of water management strategies with land-use policies with the aim of
2. creating greater potential for complete as opposed to partial community sustainability, and contribute to
3. consensus on what kind of West we want to create for our children.

Bob Sandford’s work is this area aims at building a bridge between scientific research and public education and between generations as we seek to define the kind of West in which we would like to live in the future. This work is aimed at an inter-generational capacity building and involves all aspects of how water defines us as a society.

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The Alberta Irrigation Projects Association “Every Drop Counts”

Video Series

Bob Sandford was very heavily involved in the writing and production of a significant educational program produced by David Hill on behalf of the Alberta Irrigation Projects Association. This program demonstrates, once again, the reach of the UN Water for Life Decade partnership.
The series is quite interesting. Described by world water expert Margaret Catley-Carlson as “the most exciting teaching tool on water to appear in years”, the Teacher’s Guide and its accompanying tools are designed to excite Grade Eight students about the importance of water to our Canadian way of life. 
This guide offers an introduction to three nested and completely integrated learning tools designed to provide all the material elements a teacher will need to teach four to six full Grade Eight class sessions on the topic of fresh water in Alberta. In this kit there are: 
1.      The Hook: A Great Four Episode Television Drama
Four highly engaging video episodes that follow in sequence the adventures of a group of four grade eight students who are encouraged by their teacher to discover more about water, and to develop their own interest in contemporary music, by entering a song-writing contest created in support of the United Nations Water for Life Decade. These videos are done to the highest television broadcast entertainment standards and are designed to fully engage students. The plot of each of these episodes has been carefully designed as an exciting vehicle for learning about how fresh water shapes our way of life. The interaction between the Grade Eight students in each of the video episodes is punctuated by curriculum-based information about water, right from how Earth became a “water planet” to how fresh water ecosystems function and how the availability of water propels agricultural and industrial prosperity in Alberta.
In each of the separate episodes, the students are introduced to experts who offer engaging perspectives on how water shapes the lives of everyone who lives in Alberta and in the Canadian West. Desired learning outcomes are achieved by videos that appear within the larger context of the plot. In each episode there is a “video within a video” information segment that functions as a stand alone teaching tool that can be pulled out of each episode to reinforce curriculum content.
In the first two episodes the students are shown these separate videos by a real-life water expert working in service of the United Nations Water for Life Decade in Canada. In the last two episodes, this content is provided by way of interviews with experts in the field. These include a professional aquatic ecosystem specialist, an expert in Alberta irrigation and farmers who use advanced computer-aided water management and distribution systems to grow food. As the plot develops, so does the song the students are writing.  
2.      The Content: Hard Facts
The information segments in each of the separate “video with a video” DVDs in this kit are designed to be shown after the class has viewed the dramatized story that forms the foundation for the larger plot. This repetition will serve to reinforce key points in the fresh water unit. These visually engaging presentations can also be used to focus on what students can learn from their surroundings, and from science, about how important fresh water is to our way of life. 
3.      A “Go-To” Website for Further Information
Finally, this guide also includes backup information that supports what is presented in each of the video episodes including glossaries of new words, follow-up questions to test content recall and a variety of extension questions. Photocopy-ready worksheets are also included. An interactive website www.everydropcounts.com has also been created as a means to invite further student inquiry and on-going interest in what they can do to ensure that issues of water availability and quality do not limit their future as citizens of Alberta. If you go to this website, you can see the videos, the big concert finale and all the attendant information that forms the teaching guide.
The series was produced by Alberta Irrigation Projects Association in partnership with a number of other agencies including the Alberta Ingenuity, EPCOR, Inside Education and the UN Water for Life Decade.

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Collaborative Watershed Management Process

Bob Sandford has been involved in the development and testing of vitally new processes that build on already existing water management successes in the province. The University of Lethbridge is the lead in a partnership with Hydrologics Inc. of Columbia, Maryland, the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and the United Nations Water for Decade initiative in a major pilot project aimed at establishing a more effective process for minimizing conflict over water quality, allocation and use issues in Canada. The pilot project, which will test the new public process, will seek to further advance sound water management practices in the South Saskatchewan River Basin. This pilot, which will be called the Collaborative Watershed Management Process, will be initiated in the spring of 2007 and is expected to take two years to complete.

What is different about this pilot is that it combines a range of never before combined process elements all aimed at moving participants in public processes from defending positions to seeking common interests with the aim of optimizing the widest range of needs while minimizing conflict over water resources. The first of these processes, developed by Dr. David Eaton at the University of Texas in Austin, is a new Rapid Dispute Prevention technique that allows participants in public processes to determine common interests at the outset of discussions aimed at new solutions. This video-interview and position-comparison technique has been employed successfully in conflict resolution between Israelis and Palestinians over use of the Jordan River and by American and Mexican negotiators seeking resolution of longstanding issues over the Rio Grande.

The second innovative component of this process is a highly effective computer assisted negotiation process developed by Dr. Dan Sheer of Hydrologics Inc., an engineering firm based in Maryland that specializes in advanced techniques for the management of water resources. The Hydrologics process, which features a highly interactive, real time simulation process readily available to all participants, has already been applied widely all over the world with particular recent success on the fragile Roanoke River in the United States. The Hydrologics process has been used so successfully in the U.S. that almost 1 in 5 Americans now receive their water from watersheds in which these tools are used.

These two innovative processes will be applied to the further development of the Irrigation District Model with the aim of achieving already established performance measures for appropriate management of the South Saskatchewan River Basin.

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The Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative

Bob Sandford has invested a great deal of time and energy, not just into existing UN Water for Life programming, but also into creating new structures that will help Albertans manage water more effectively as our climate changes. Bob Sandford has been working quietly but purposefully for more than two years with the University of Lethbridge to create the Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative.

Projected changes in our climate will affect us in many ways. The timing and extent of rain and snowfall will change, affecting how much water is available to agriculture, industry and to our communities. It will not just be agriculture and industry however that will be affected by a changing climate. There will be impacts also on water storage & hydro-power generation, public infrastructure, forestry, tourism, recreation, real estate, community development, public health and local identity and sense of place.

The Rocky Mountains are the water towers of the Canadian West. Climate impacts on water availability in these mountains will have a profound influence on the economies of all four western provinces. In order to ensure that these and related changes do not limit our social and economic development, it is important to measure with as much exactness as possible what is actually happening to our climate and to understand what the changes mean so that we can adapt successfully to whatever the future might bring.

The not-for-profit Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative has been created, in association with the University of Lethbridge, to address these on-going needs. Within this collaborative are many of this country’s most highly respected climate scientists, technology analysts and policy experts.

The mission of this collaborative is to establish a broad scientific basis for understanding and responding to climate related impacts in the Canadian West. In this context it will address fundamental questions related to long term water availability and energy issues; identify and develop practical social, economic and technological mitigations and adaptations; and put into relief public policy options that will create incentives that will encourage positive adaptation to changing climate circumstances.

The goal of this organization is to do practical, directed science; translate that science into intelligible language that decision-makers can understand; put into relief the policy options that emerge from that science and then help municipal and federal governments and major industry sectors choose the right directions to follow in order to reduce risk and enhance our capacity to respond productively as we adapt to the combined impacts of population growth, landscape alteration and climate change.

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The Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative will provide services in three domains:

1. The WWCRC Scientific Research Network will provide research and interpretation services that will include:

• Building bridges between scientific research outputs and public education

• Public presentations by leading scientists and others aimed to clarify and upgrade public understanding about climate-related threats and opportunities

• The projection of scientifically-defined climate trends into the future with the goal of determining potential short, medium and long-term economic, social, environmental and political implications of the projected climate impacts;

• Directed scientific research that will fill in gaps in our understanding of climate change and its positive and negative impacts on our landscapes, ecosystems, economy and social fabric

• The translation of scientific research conducted around the world into language the average Albertan can understand and decision-makers can act upon

• The creation of a repository of climate science knowledge and perspectives

2. The WWCRC Appropriate Practices & Adaptive Technology Network will find solutions to climate related challenges & opportunities through:

• Identification and development of appropriate practices, technological improvements and innovations for incorporation into community, regional and organizational climate adaptation strategies

• Research into new technologies that can help us adapt and that can be commercialized in ways that will allow Canada to profitably help others address their climate adaptation needs

• Identification of existing and “next step” practices and technological adaptations needed to address climate threats and opportunities particularly as they relate to water, energy and carbon emissions

• Comparison and ranking of best practices and technologies as to their total cost of ownership from a climate adaptation perspective

3. The WWCRC public policy, governance and communications network will assist in the creation of an integrated response to climate issues and opportunities by:

• Identifying laws, policies and regulations that currently govern matters related to climate change adaptation options and opportunities with the goal of determining how incentives can be made to lead to greater adaptation success

• working with diverse others to determine what information, social marketing tools, actions and communications processes are needed to ensure that appropriate adaptation  is possible in both public and private sectors and in society as a whole

• offering expert Rapid Dispute Prevention facilitation in areas of potential or actual conflict over climate-related adaptation

• linking of adaptation responses to improvements in water management and land-use policy in ways that will encourage true sustainability at both community and regional levels

This ambitious project would not have gotten off the ground without the commitment and patience of Bob Sandford.

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Museum Exhibitions Related To Sense of Place

Bob Sandford has been active in the interpretation of place-related issues through museum exhibitions. His first photographic exhibition, Faces of Field: Life In A Small Mountain Town, toured widely in the mountain West between 1979 and 1983. A second photographic exhibition, entitled This Business of Banff, was exhibited at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in 1988. Bob Sandford’s remarkable exhibition Maps, Myths & Mountains opened at the Nickle Art Museum at the University of Calgary and toured widely between 1998 and 2003. In 2005, Bob collaborated with curator Ann Davis, scholar Beverly Sandalack and landscape architect Len Novak and others to create A Sense of Place, an exhibition on the relationship between landscape and local identity which opened at the Nickle Arts Museum as part of the Alberta Centennial in 2005. This exhibition, and its two companion books, won a Calgary Award for heritage celebration, a national award from the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects and the International EDRA 2006 Place Planning Award for its unique representation of the link between people and the places that define them.

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