In 2017, WWA launched a series of workshops in partnership with communities to help them plan for risks that they were facing. In 2018, WWA worked closely with community members and leaders in Carbondale, Colorado to plan a workshop focused on drought. In this video, partners from Carbondale share how this collaboration with WWA helped local leaders assess risks from drought and develop and implement strategies to build community resilience. The workshop led to many changes, including improved irrigation practices, enhanced water supply redundancy, resilience planning for critical infrastructure like their sewer plant, and better hazard preparedness. This partnership is an example of how hazard planning and community engagement can help communities like Carbondale become resilient to hazard impacts.
In this video, Taylor Winchell from Denver Water highlights their decades-long partnership with WWA, and how WWA has helped shape Denver Water’s long-term planning and resilience strategies. Serving 1.5 million people in the Denver metro area, Denver Water relies on WWA’s scientific expertise to incorporate environmental conditions into future water supply planning. He emphasizes the significance of WWA's Colorado River State of the Science report as a cornerstone for understanding and managing a river that supports 40 million people across the western U.S. Taylor states that without WWA, Denver Water and the broader resource management community would lose access to critical tools, data, assessments, and collaborative support that make informed decision-making possible in the region. This continued partnership exemplifies the importance of connecting scientific research with real-world resource management.
In 2023, WWA worked closely with community members and leaders in Lander, Wyoming to plan a workshop focused on flooding. In this video, Assistant Mayor of Lander RaJean Strube Fossen highlights the workshop’s impact. By bringing together a broad group of community partners, the workshop fostered collaboration, improved communication strategies for pre- and post-disaster events, and provided a critical opportunity for participants to discuss impacts on key infrastructure like water, sewer, transportation, and access to medical facilities. The workshop participants identified actions that could help shelter and house residents who might be displaced by flooding, provided temporary and permanent solutions for transportation and housing, and identified potential economic impacts of flooding events. This partnership is an example of how hazard planning and community engagement can help communities like Lander build resilience to natural hazard impacts.
In 2017, WWA launched a series of workshops in partnership with communities to help them plan for natural hazard risks that they were facing. In 2018, WWA worked closely with community members and leaders in Cortez, Colorado to plan a workshop focused on drought. In this video, Tracie Hughes, former City Planner for Cortez, and Phil Johnson, former Director of Public Works and Planning for Cortez, highlight the drought workshop’s impact on the city. They share how this collaboration with WWA helped the City of Cortez better understand their water resources, assess the risks of drought, and develop and implement strategies to build community resilience. By bringing together a broad group of community leaders and partners, the workshop fostered collaboration and led the community to advance several actions, including improved irrigation practices, the rollout of the Water Is Our Future community water conservation program, changing out water-intensive grasses to drought-resistant grasses for lawns, and informed the 2018 Water Conservation Plan for Cortez. This partnership is an example of how hazard planning and community engagement can help communities like Cortez build resilience to natural hazard impacts.