"Gibby’s Field" natural park

A new park has opened in East Vancouver's Kensington-Cedar Cottage. Commonly known as "Gibby’s Field", this site helps to capture and clean rainwater while also enhancing biodiversity. 

Building on the community vision developed by neighbours and advocates, the design features a rain garden, an improved accessible pathway, and natural vegetation.

 Information icon  This project is partly funded by the Government of Canada’s Natural Infrastructure Fund for rainwater integration projects throughout the city.

Treating rainfall where it lands

"Gibby’s Field" features an ephemeral wetland designed to meet Rain City Strategy targets, capturing and cleaning the first 48mm of rainwater runoff in a day and 90% of annual rainfall annually.

Rainwater runoff will be collected from the laneway catch basin and directed into the wetland, where plants and soils will help to filter out pollutants such as heavy metals, bacteria, chemicals, and microplastics before water returns into the ground. 

Through its natural systems of plants and soils, "Gibby’s Field" will treat 6,253 m³ of rainfall each year – the equivalent of 62,530 bathtubs.