'One Water One Watershed' Plan - Breakthroughs in Collaboration and Sustainability

摘要

The Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, a joint powers authority representing water resource interests in the Santa Ana River Watershed, along with watershed stakeholders in the Santa Ana River watershed are working together on an Integrated Water Resources Management plan called, "One Water One Watershed (OWOW) Plan. Under this program, an innovative collaborative planning process for water resources in our region is underway. To address water resource challenges, the OWOW Plan uses an innovative a bottom-up approach in which not only different interests in the Watershed collaborate, but in which a diverse group of stakeholders actually develop and prepare much of the Plan. Under this approach, water resource needs are integrated among stakeholders to assure that multi-beneficial, multi-jurisdictional approaches are proposed to deal with the growing water resource crises. In this fashion, a truly innovative planning process is created that exercises new avenues of watershed systems thinking, promotes collaboration across jurisdictional boundaries, and creates a new vision or water ethic rather than only solving localized problems. It is expected that the Plan will advance a needed paradigm change from water supply to an integrated water management mentality: moving from a mission of providing abundant high-quality water at the lowest cost possible, to one in which water resources are managed in a sustainable manner and with regard for the needs of the environment.