The Water Environment Research Foundation, in partnership with the Water Research Foundation, U.S. EPA, NOAA, Concurrent Technologies Corporation and Noblis, produceda report that discusses how water, wastewater and stormwater utilities and other local water resource managers made decisions in response to recent extreme events. Water/Wastewater Utilities and Extreme Climate and Weather Events examines what happened, how information was used to inform decisions, what institutional dynamics helped or hindered, and how water utilities (and their communities) are planning to deal with extreme events in the future.
The report includes a set of case studies derived from six local workshops, which were organized to include participants that experienced different types of extreme events throughout a river basin or watershed. The six case study areas are:
- Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin, Georgia
- Central Texas Region
- Lower Missouri River Basin, Kansas and Missouri
- National Capital Area
- Russian River Basin, California
- Tidewater Area, Virginia
This report is intended to facilitate peer-to-peer sharing on how water resource managers are coping with these events and building future resiliency, as well as to identify gaps in the availability of information and information pathways needed to inform local decision making. This examination of current and future risks and exchange of successful strategies contribute to nationwide efforts to advance extreme event preparation and adaptation to climate change.