That's a vital economic reality and also a huge opportunity for us to showcase our communities, to attract new investment, and to continue to learn from others engaged in regeneration. Watershed popularized the ecosystem approach to planning. Ten years later we know a lot about how to engage in it. It must ensure that waterfronts are reconnected to the urban fabric and that the quality of the public realm is upheld and sustained. This is what makes great waterfronts.
Big plans are important, and so are bold moves.
Many communities can now point to one or two key projects that got the ball rolling and created the impetus to do more. Sometimes that project is a large consolidation of land, sometimes it's a project of great architectural beauty, and sometimes it's a bold new policy. Waterfronts are places of great meaning, because it's here that nature meets culture head on. Many individuals and whole communities have felt disconnected from their waterfront - physically, mentally and ecologically. But that is changing.