CMNS 137

Between March 2014 and June 2018, nitrate levels consistently exceeded the maximum allowable nitrate concentration (10 mg/L) under the Canadian Drinking Water Guidelines at the Steele Springs Water District drinking water overflow. In March 2019 the Interior Health Authority Water Quality Advisory issued in 2014 was rescinded following the installation of a new Steele Springs Water District well, pump house and chlorination system.

On February 28, 2019, a new regulation called the Code of Practice for Agricultural Environmental Management (AEM Code) came into effect. The new AEM Code applies to all agricultural operations in British Columbia, from small hobby farms to large commercial operations.

Participating in this initiative are the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD), Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD), City of Salmon Arm, District of Sicamous, Secwepemc Nation, BC Ministry of Environment, BC Ministry of Agriculture, Regional District of North Okanagan and members of the public at large.

The Okanagan Water Supply and Demand Project is the most advanced water resource assessment ever conducted in Canada, using the latest models and computer technology to estimate Okanagan water availability, taking into account climate change and population growth.

Agriculture is historically significant in Kelowna, shaping both its development pattern and its economy. Further, agricultural land plays an essential role in improving the quality of life of residents, offers an aesthetically diverse landscape, is an essential part of the green infrastructure (retaining rainwater, preventing flooding, and recharging aquifers), and ensures food security. An Agriculture Plan focuses on a community's farm area to discover practical solutions to challenges, identify opportunities to strengthen farming and ultimately contribute to agriculture and the community's long-term sustainability.

The Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO) Agricultural Plan applies to those
areas, mainly consisting of lands in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), that lie outside
the boundaries and jurisdictions of the City of Kelowna, the district municipalities of
Peachland and Lake Country and First Nations Reserves. The ALR lands in the Regional
District are shown on Map 1. Also shown on Map 1 are planning areas that represent
unique geographic regions and settlement areas within the Regional District.

The purpose of the Official Community Plan (OCP) is to provide a statement of objectives and policies to guide planning and land use management within the boundaries of the City of Kelowna.

An Official Community Plan (OCP) is a bylaw that consists of a series of policies that provide a framework for making land use decisions. These policies are based upon the communities vision and objectives and form a guide for future growth and land development. The Regional Board, Regional District staff, the community and developers use Official Community Plans in evaluating applications, reviewing proposed changes in land use, and undertaking projects. All development must conform to the relevant policies of the Official Community Plan.

The OCP document consists of a series of written objectives and policies. With the text is a set of maps that designate general categories of land use and show where those categories of land uses may be considered appropriate.

The Regional District of North Okanagan has completed the development of a Regional Agricultural Plan as a priority Regional Growth Strategy implementation project. The Plan provides an overview of the current regional food system in the North Okanagan, identifies opportunities and make recommendations that would help support a healthy, resilient and sustainable agricultural sector. The Plan considers agriculture and the food system in its regional context and anticipates future changes and challenges.

The Coldstream Agricultural Plan has been developed as a collaborative
process involving consultation with the residents of Coldstream, government
agencies and local stakeholders.

Vernon’s Official Community Plan (OCP) defines the vision of the community–how the community sees itself growing and developing in the future and ultimately what kind of place Vernon will be. This community driven vision is balanced with Vernon's expected population growth, opportunities for development and the availability of resources for infrastructure projects

District of Coldstream Official Community Plan web site.

Land to Table (L2T) is a growing network of interconnected actors from across the regional food system – from those who live and work on and off the Land in the North Okanagan – including farmers, those who gather and harvest traditional foods, food processors, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, chefs, consumers, and waste managers, as well as supporting groups such as not-for-profit organizations, government agencies and academic institutions; to the Table, where we gather to share food and conversation and collaborate under a shared vision.

The Agriculture Advisory Committee advises Council on all aspects of the agricultural industry including land use, economic development and cultural matters and acts as a liaison between Council and the agricultural community.

The OCP provides the long-term vision for a community by stating the objectives and policies that guide decisions on planning and land use management. Local governments are encouraged to consider how their OCP can be integrated with other community strategies, including transportation plans, sustainability plans, waste management plans and economic development plans.

Agriculture plays a key role in the economy and identity of the Shuswap region, contributing to the high quality
of life in this area. The Shuswap Agriculture Strategy builds on previous regional discussions to solidify a vision
for agriculture in the region and identifies mechanisms to support food security and the sustainable growth of agriculture in the Shuswap region.

Are found under the Bylaws Section of this webpage. Click on the + sign.

The Fraser Valley’s fertility is literally vanishing beneath farmers’ feet. A team of researchers from the University of British Columbia has found that in the past 30 years, the amount of soil organic carbon — decomposed plants, manure and other biological residue in the ground — has dropped in more than 60 per cent of the valley since the 1980s.

Increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) can improve the capacity of agricultural systems to both adapt to and mitigate climate change. Despite its importance, the current understanding of the magnitude or even the direction of SOC change in agricultural landscapes is limited. While changes in land use/land cover (LULC) and climate are among the main drivers of changes in SOC, their relative importance for the spatiotemporal assessment of SOC is unclear. This study evaluated LULC and SOC dynamics using archived and recent soil samples, remote sensing, and digital soil mapping in the Lower Fraser Valley of British Columbia, Canada. We combined both pixel- and object-based analysis of Landsat satellite imagery to assess LULC changes from 1984 to 2018. We achieved an overall accuracy of 81% and kappa coefficient of 0.77 for LULC classification using a random forest model. For predicting SOC for the same time period, we applied soil and vegetation indices derived from Landsat images, topographic indices, historic soil survey variables, and climate data in a random forest model. The SOC prediction of 2018 resulted in a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.67, concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) of 0.76, and normalized root mean square error (nRMSE) of 0.12. For 1984, the SOC prediction accuracies were 0.46, 0.58, and 0.18 for R2, CCC, and nRMSE, respectively. We detected SOC loss in 61%, gain in 12%, while 27% remained unchanged across the study area. Although we detected large losses of SOC due to LULC change, the majority of the SOC losses across the landscape were attributed to areas that were remained in the same type of agricultural production since 1984. Climate variability did not, however, have a strong effect on SOC changes. These results can inform decision making in the study area to support sustainable LULC management for enhancing SOC sequestration.

The current world population of 7.6 billion is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100, according to a new United Nations report being launched today. With roughly 83 million people being added to the world’s population every year, the upward trend in population size is expected to continue, even assuming that fertility levels will continue to decline.

The prevailing discourse on the future of agriculture is dominated by an imbalanced narrative that calls for food production to increase dramatically—potentially doubling by 2050—without specifying commensurate environmental goals. We aim to rebalance this narrative by laying out quantitative and compelling midcentury targets for both production and the environment. Our analysis shows that an increase of approximately 25%–70% above current production levels may be sufficient to meet 2050 crop demand. At the same time, nutrient losses and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture must drop dramatically to restore and maintain ecosystem functioning. Specifying quantitative targets will clarify the scope of the challenges that agriculture must face in the coming decades, focus research and policy on achieving specific outcomes, and ensure that sustainable intensification efforts lead to measurable environmental improvements. We propose new directions for research and
policy to help meet both sustainability and production goals.

Keywords: food demand, crop yield, food security, environment, policy

A detailed retrospective of the Green Revolution, its achievement and limits in terms of agricultural productivity improvement, and its broader impact at social, environmental, and economic levels is provided. Lessons learned and the strategic insights are reviewed as the world is preparing a "redux" version of the Green Revolution with more integrative environmental and social impact combined with agricultural and economic development. Core policy directions for Green Revolution 2.0 that enhance the spread and sustainable adoption of productivity enhancing technologies are specified.

Agricultural lands (lands used for agricultural production,
consisting of cropland, managed grassland and permanent crops
including agro-forestry and bio-energy crops) occupy about 40-
50% of the Earth’s land surface. Globally, agricultural CH4 and N2O emissions have increased
by nearly 17% from 1990 to 2005, an average annual emission increase of about 60 MtCO2-eq/yr.

The IPCC is an organization of governments that are members of the United Nations or WMO. The IPCC currently has 195 members. Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, IPCC scientists volunteer their time to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.