The integration of water and land use planning is one crucial action to close the gap between future water supplies and demands. Communities across the West are taking that action, but how much do we know about the extent to which communities have integrated water and land use planning, and even more importantly, whether those actions have saved water? What tools would be most helpful to communities in measuring their success?

“Sonoran Institute and Brendle Group have evaluated meaningful metrics that communities and the State can use to measure progress of water-land use planning integration and the impacts of those efforts.” – Christy Wiseman, AICP | Land Use and Water Planner, Colorado Department of Local Affairs

Data and information are essential: How are we doing, what is working well, and what is not working well? To help answer these questions, we hope Colorado’s water and planning professionals will use the metrics presented in this guidebook to establish baseline values, set targets, and inform decision-making at local, regional, and State levels.

This guidebook is a call to action to community land use planners, water providers, consultants, government agencies, universities, and non-profit organizations to lead the way in collaboration and data-driven decision-making.

This is an opportunity to step beyond siloed roles and jurisdictional boundaries to collaborate with different members of your community and with the communities around you.

Announcing the Growing Water Smart Metrics Pilot Project

The Sonoran Institute is accepting applications from local governments (municipalities or counties) in Colorado that are interested in selecting, calculating, and applying metrics to track the extent and impact of water-saving actions into land use. This opportunity operationalizes the guidance found in Growing Water Smart Metrics: Tracking the Integration of Water and Land Use Planning (2020).

Two local governments will be accepted and will receive specialized training and assistance from Sonoran Institute and Brendle Group LLC, consisting of:

  • Guidance in development of a stakeholder group
  • Four 3-hour workshops with their stakeholder group,
    including: Anchor, Define, Activate, and Assess
  • Technical assistance in gathering data and calculating metrics
Application Deadline:
March 19, 2021 5:00 pm (MST)
More information coming soon! 
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