One Goal, Many Paths: A Multi-disciplined Approach to Achieving and Sustaining Long Term Water Conservation

Presenter Information

Stephanie Duer

Location

USU Eccles Conference Center

Event Website

http://water.usu.edu

Start Date

4-5-2016 11:15 AM

End Date

4-5-2016 11:30 AM

Description

Summary Since writing its first water conservation master plan in 1999, Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities’ (SLCDPU) has worked to enhance and expand conservation programming to successfully achieve short and long term water-use reduction goals within its service area. Through a variety of programming avenues, SLCDPU guides the community to see how water conservation is a critical tool to achieve a shared goal: develop and sustain a long term supply of high quality drinking water for our community now and into the future. This presentation will explore the SLCDPU water conservation program through several of its initiatives, and discuss how these initiatives, while taking different approaches, weave together to help achieve Salt Lake City’s water conservation goals. Particular focus will be placed on the role that the academic and research community plays in informing and enhancing the SLCDPU programs, and the mutual benefits derived from these partnerships. Abstract Since writing its first water conservation master plan in 1999, Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities (SLCDPU) has seen the interest in water conservation grow, within its community, throughout the larger metropolitan region, and within a variety of special interests, including academic and research communities. Understanding and leveraging the parallel, shared, and divergent interests of its diverse customer base, SLCDPU has created a conservation program designed to convey critical information and drive behavior using Outreach, Economics, Utility, Law and Policy, Research, and Metrics. This broad yet balanced approach has helped to convey the importance of a single goal: develop and sustain a long term supply of high quality drinking water for our community now and into the future. Water conservation is an integral component of SLCDPU’s overall water management strategy. Through water conservation planning and programs expressed via thirty-six ongoing program initiatives, SLCDPU educates, informs, and motivates the community to take action to reduce water use in order to achieve its long term water conservation goals, which in term is helping to secure our water resources for now and into the future. It is this balanced approached—education and outreach, policy, price signals, water use analytics, partnerships and collaboration, and meaningful benchmarking—that helps SLCDPU lead its community to a consistent trend of water use reduction over the last 15 years, a reduction trend of over 20 percent since the year 2000. This presentation will highlight key initiatives within the 2014 Water Conservation Master Plan. Particular attention will be given to program initiatives that have either been informed by or have driven collaborative, mutually beneficial academic research, such as Water Checks, rate making, and intervention analysis. The presentation of these initiatives will provide a basis for a discussion on the role of conservation in long range water planning and stimulate dialogue pertaining to future research and collaborative needs.

Comments

An oral presentation by Stephanie Duer

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS
 
Apr 5th, 11:15 AM Apr 5th, 11:30 AM

One Goal, Many Paths: A Multi-disciplined Approach to Achieving and Sustaining Long Term Water Conservation

USU Eccles Conference Center

Summary Since writing its first water conservation master plan in 1999, Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities’ (SLCDPU) has worked to enhance and expand conservation programming to successfully achieve short and long term water-use reduction goals within its service area. Through a variety of programming avenues, SLCDPU guides the community to see how water conservation is a critical tool to achieve a shared goal: develop and sustain a long term supply of high quality drinking water for our community now and into the future. This presentation will explore the SLCDPU water conservation program through several of its initiatives, and discuss how these initiatives, while taking different approaches, weave together to help achieve Salt Lake City’s water conservation goals. Particular focus will be placed on the role that the academic and research community plays in informing and enhancing the SLCDPU programs, and the mutual benefits derived from these partnerships. Abstract Since writing its first water conservation master plan in 1999, Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities (SLCDPU) has seen the interest in water conservation grow, within its community, throughout the larger metropolitan region, and within a variety of special interests, including academic and research communities. Understanding and leveraging the parallel, shared, and divergent interests of its diverse customer base, SLCDPU has created a conservation program designed to convey critical information and drive behavior using Outreach, Economics, Utility, Law and Policy, Research, and Metrics. This broad yet balanced approach has helped to convey the importance of a single goal: develop and sustain a long term supply of high quality drinking water for our community now and into the future. Water conservation is an integral component of SLCDPU’s overall water management strategy. Through water conservation planning and programs expressed via thirty-six ongoing program initiatives, SLCDPU educates, informs, and motivates the community to take action to reduce water use in order to achieve its long term water conservation goals, which in term is helping to secure our water resources for now and into the future. It is this balanced approached—education and outreach, policy, price signals, water use analytics, partnerships and collaboration, and meaningful benchmarking—that helps SLCDPU lead its community to a consistent trend of water use reduction over the last 15 years, a reduction trend of over 20 percent since the year 2000. This presentation will highlight key initiatives within the 2014 Water Conservation Master Plan. Particular attention will be given to program initiatives that have either been informed by or have driven collaborative, mutually beneficial academic research, such as Water Checks, rate making, and intervention analysis. The presentation of these initiatives will provide a basis for a discussion on the role of conservation in long range water planning and stimulate dialogue pertaining to future research and collaborative needs.

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2016/2016Abstracts/3