Rainwater harvest, runoff, water self-sufficiency, green infrastructure, sustainable development
Greening Infrastructure and Revitalizing Watersheds for Sustainable Water Systems in San Diego:
The San Diego area, as well as the whole Southern California region in general, is facing a growing water crisis. The primary water sources are imports from Northern California and Colorado, of which the supply is stretching more thinly as the regional population grows. If these current trends continue, eventually San Diego will be left without enough water to support itself. In order to avoid this scenario, we must begin taking steps to find alternative and local water sources which are sustainable. There are several methods we can employ: possibilities include sea water desalinization, restoring regional watersheds, and closed-loop “toilet-to-tap” reclamation systems. By greening our water infrastructure, we will save not only ourselves, but our natural environment as well.
Exploring Rainwater Harvesting for the City of San Diego:
San Diego has already begun research and planning for desalination plants and water reclamation systems; however, it has not considered rainwater harvest as an alternative sustainable water system nearly as much as these others. It is crucial that San Diego also seriously explores the possibility of implementing rainwater harvesting because it needs all of the usable water it can get. Even if this would not be viable as an alternative primary water supply, it still will at least aid in reducing the demand for imported water and be a significant step towards achieving water self-sufficiency.
Supplying water for the San Diego metropolitan area is a crucial issue because of the growing population’s increasingly dangerous overuse and dependence upon imported water. However, current research suggests that through employing principles of effective watershed management and green planning, properly harmonizing infrastructure with natural hydrological systems opens the possibility for creating self-sustaining water systems. Therefore with such optimization, SD’s local water sources have the potential to meet at least a significant amount of water demand. This proposal will examine how effective SD region watersheds can be at supplying water if they are optimized and converted into alternative water sources. Research data on this will be gathered from archival records, GIS mappings, and analyses of relevant agencies’ implementation and management plans. This study will contribute to literature on sustainable development, watershed management, and California’s water crisis. Results will be shared with urban planners, governments, and water agencies—with the hope that these findings will be a step for SD towards becoming self-sufficient in its water supply.
Despite limited local sources and dwindling imported supplies, San Diego continues to grow and increase its water consumption. As a result of this and overreliance upon long-distance imported water, SD has been facing the growing threat of a major water crisis. Alternative local sustainable water sources must be found in order to avert this. For this end, this study investigates the extent to which the City of San Diego has realized the potential for rainwater harvesting as a supplemental water source, and evaluates its efforts in researching and implementing such systems. Evidence for this project was gathered from interviews with city officials and local rainwater harvesting experts, as well as materials released by city water departments. Qualitative analyses of these data sources were conducted within a framework considering the local government’s empirical research, policies, and outreach with regard to rainwater harvest systems. Evidence indicates that the local SD government seemingly has not been placing enough emphasis upon rainwater harvesting because previous limitations in knowledge have hindered its development before; however, growing need and public demand have led the city to begin taking recent action.
My research paper, “Exploring Rainwater Harvesting for the City of San Diego,” investigates the extent to which the San Diego city government has researched and implemented rainwater harvesting infrastructure; this usually consists of rain gutter roof catchments and rain barrels. This is significant because more sustainable water systems must be developed given the context of Southern California’s growing water crisis. Although rainwater harvesting is insufficient as an alternative primary water supply due to San Diego’s growing population and generally arid regional climate of low average rainfall, I argue that this very same reason makes rainwater harvesting infrastructure all the more crucial because we need all the water we can get. I began my study of San Diego’s efforts through interviews with local experts and government officials, as well as reviewing available relevant informational materials released by city water departments. This was followed by a qualitative analysis examining the empirical evidence, policies, and outreach regarding rainwater harvesting. Through this evaluation, I have found that not enough emphasis had been placed upon rainwater harvest before due to previous knowledge limitations; however, growing need for both water conservation and runoff pollution reduction has led the city to take measures to start facilitating its development. So although most efforts have been carried out by individuals and small businesses so far, the City of San Diego has begun to consider implementing rainwater harvest through water conservation initiatives undertaken by the Water Department, as well as a current pilot study conducted by the Storm Water Department.
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