Rocky View County shares early efforts to recognize nature as infrastructure 

Natural asset management (NAM) is getting off the ground in Rocky View County, Alberta. We sat down with two of the leaders behind this transition, Bhupesh Sakalley, Supervisor, Asset Management and Municipal Lands, and Andrew Chell, Supervisor, Policy Planning, to follow up on how the County is progressing since completing the NAM Roadmap Program. In this interview, we explore how the County is navigating the early stages of NAM, including the new inventory project for Bragg Creek and their upcoming Agricultural Master Plan.

To start us off, tell me a little bit about Rocky View County (RVC). Looking at the map, you’re almost wrapped around Calgary, right?

Bhupesh: Yes, we’re quite spread out at about one million acres, including lots of natural areas, provincial parks, agricultural lands—we call ourselves ‘rurban’, or rural-urban, because we have some very small communities as well as urban areas.

Development has been very fast, especially with investments made in the county and people migrating from Calgary for rural living. Those who find the city “too busy” make their way to RVC.

Sounds like a lot of growth to manage! Rocky View completed the Natural Asset Management Roadmap Program last year—was this the County’s first formal step in natural asset management, and how did it come about? 

Bhupesh: Until recently, our general asset management work was all under the transportation department, but now we are a corporate asset management department so that we can manage assets across the organization. My introduction to natural asset management was, coincidentally, at one of NAI’s workshop in Calgary—I just immediately grasped the idea of ‘nature as infrastructure’.

So, while we were in the process of moving to a corporate asset management structure, I talked with other departments about what I had learned, and they were also interested in looking into natural assets and what sort of services they provide, or how they could be incorporated into our engineering designs. The Roadmap Program was an opportunity for us to get started in this work and collaborate with the utilities and capital projects teams to develop our roadmap for Rocky View County.

We finished the program in 2024 and are still in the beginning stage of NAM. Right now, we’re focused on training and learning opportunities and preparing for an upcoming inventory project for Bragg Creek—Andrew can provide more insight on that.

Alright Andrew, what’s this about a natural asset inventory in Bragg Creek?

Andrew: We’re doing a NAM inventory and study as a part of our Area Structure Plan review for the Bragg Creek hamlet. Bragg Creek is a very nature-first area. There’s a huge provincial recreation area just outside the hamlet, with over 160 kilometres of multi-use trails for hiking, cross-country skiing, and mountain biking. 

We secured enough grant money to do a significant study, which is exciting as we haven’t done anything like this in RVC. Our main objective with the study is to identify the ecosystem services that are provided specifically to the Bragg Creek area. The natural environment is also a major draw for recreational tourists visiting Bragg Creek, so we want to explore ways to potentially quantify the value of environmental features—like wildlife, or fishing and other recreation—to the local economy. There are some well-organized community groups that have done some citizen science, things like animal counts. So, to whatever degree those are rigorous enough for the study we’ll include them where we can.

Anyways, that’s ultimately what we hope to achieve with the NAM study. We’re not sure how it will translate into area structure plan policies yet, but we’re curious to learn, and it’s important to have baseline data for this area that we can apply to other policy and programs in the future.

I’m looking forward to seeing the results! A natural asset inventory is a great way to start identifying priority natural assets. You mentioned funding, was this a provincial grant?  

Andrew: Yes, we applied for Alberta’s Northern Regional Economic Development grant, which supports projects that further local economic development initiatives. Since the natural environment is a primary draw for visitors to Bragg Creek, a portion of the grant is being used to cover this Natural Asset Inventory. In addition, there are environmental constraints and risks to development that we want to understand better. The Inventory will also identify and quantify the ecosystem services that benefit human activities in Bragg Creek, which will help us ensure the sustainability of infrastructure that caters to the tourism economy.  

Many communities look to natural asset management and natural infrastructure for climate adaptation and to lower the risk of things like floods and droughts—are you exploring these kinds of services for Rocky View?

Bhupesh: Yes, in fact the Bragg Creek area had a flood in 2013, and we still have a flood management program in place there. So, stormwater services are something we’re looking at, especially in Bragg Creek because we know that area has a lot of natural features that help with drainage—at the same time there isn’t a lot of space to build big stormwater ponds or infrastructure on the land, so it makes sense to use the natural areas for stormwater management. 

I have talked to the utilities and capital staff about using nature to manage stormwater in that area, so the idea is in our heads and something we want to look at in the future.   

You also have an Agricultural Master Plan (AMP) in the works! I was excited to see that it includes goals related to enhancing ecology and recognizing the value of natural assets.

Andrew: The draft Agricultural Master Plan is currently in phase 2 of engagement, so more to come before it’s approved. I’m not directly involved in the development of the plan, but I think there’s a lot to be said about the natural resources throughout the rest of the county and the AMP. Farming is based on the land, and there’s a sense that it’s an activity very tied to the environment, but there isn’t a lot of quantification of what that means. The more data we collect, the more targeted and robust we can make our policies around agriculture as a land use.

Recognizing that you’re just getting natural asset management off the ground in Rocky View, is there any advice or insight you have for other communities?

Andrew: We’ve found that our most persuasive argument to Council when asking for resources to undertake these projects is when we show that these natural assets are something the community really values. 

It helps when the community clearly expresses their desire to prioritize the natural environment. Our job as land use planners is to represent the public interest in the final land use policies. Through public engagement in Bragg Creek, we’ve heard that a significant part of their identity is based on being a community in the forest, and they’re very tied to being a part of these ecosystems. We want to identify and quantify these values so that we can design land use policies that achieve residents’ vision for their community.

At the municipal level, we have a pretty good understanding of how to budget for our built infrastructure, maintain it through its life cycle, and plan for replacement. By applying a similar mindset to our natural assets, we can be more strategic in protecting environmental features in our communities.  And if we don’t need to spend money on built infrastructure because the service is being provided by the natural environment, that’s a financial win too – tying it back to the needs of the community resonates with Council. 

Bhupesh: The main thing that I’ve found challenging is the awareness piece, even with simple questions like “hey, what counts as a ‘natural asset’?” Although we know all these things exist in our neighbourhoods, most people are not aware they are natural assets—it’s getting around the traditional thinking of building infrastructure and looking at nature for services. 

So, whenever I get the chance to speak with other departments, I bring the natural asset perspective and ask them to look at how we can use these natural resources in our infrastructure development or manage them in that area. It’s a work in progress but, when the awareness shift happens, people will be more inclined to look at natural assets first.

Adopting natural asset management takes a concerted effort, and as you’ve demonstrated there can be a lot for a community to manage when they’re just getting started. What is motivating you to pursue NAM in Rocky View County? 

Bhupesh: For me, the first thing is the opportunity to learn something new in asset management, and the second is that we can only build so much infrastructure in an area—my understanding of natural assets and natural infrastructure is that it’s something that’s available to us to manage things like flooding and stormwater. 

With grey infrastructure, once it’s built it’s forever, you cannot use that land for any other purpose, but natural assets are different. If we learn to manage natural assets within our community, I think we’ll be able to provide better services and protect our natural resources.

My intent is to continue to learn about NAM and move from engineered to natural assets for managing some of those services. The science is still progressing, and I want to be a part of the journey and bring this solution to municipalities. 

Ready to create your own plan for NAM? Submit your application to the 2025-2026 Natural Asset Management Roadmap Program today!