Bernie Amell was the principal environmental design professional working with a large interdisciplinary team on a 50 year strategic plan for the drainage of a 150 square km area along the east side of Calgary.  The subject area faces many constraints arising from the combination of low permeability subgrades and overall low gradient prairie pothole topography.  It also faces high pressures for development due to a ring road freeway that is under construction. Two innovative features of this study in which Bernie was directly involved, were the wide scale adoption of naturalized channels preferentially (instead of piped conveyance), and the incorporation of a high degree of Low Impact Development (LID) practices within the practical limitations imposed by the soils and Calgary climactic conditions.