Informed by contributors from around the globe, the conference will focus on design solutions and policy recommendations for the cities and landscapes of the American West. Showcasing award-winning work from the Drylands Design Open Ideas Competition the conference brings together professionals and policymakers from across disciplines to ask:
1. How can the American West achieve water conservation and climate change mitigation goals through careful retrofitting of the built environment? Where are the opportunities for maximum harvest of local rainwater, stormwater, greywater, and wastewater resources? Where are the greatest savings in terms of water conservation, energy conservation, and reduced GHG emissions?
2. What role can 'soft path' water infrastructures play? What role can advanced technologies play?
3. How might these strategies benefit low- and middle-income communities?
4. How might these strategies re-shape the West's civic and open spaces?
5. Do these strategies contain guidelines for developing a resilient future, in both industrialized nations and the developing world?
6. What planning and design strategies deployed elsewhere on the globe can be adapted to the West?
7. How are these guidelines most effectively communicated to planners, policy makers, and designers, in the academy and in professional practice?
The International Drylands Design Conference, with seed funding from US Department of Housing and Urban Development, debates competing strategies for the American West and beyond, challenging current claims about urban/agricultural, industrialized/indigenous, and centralized/distributed water management policy. Celebrando las Acequias, in collaboration with the people of the Lower Embudo Valley, NM, celebrates the resilience and ingenuity of traditional water societies.
Informed by contributors from around the globe, the conference will focus on design solutions and policy recommendations for the cities and landscapes of the American West. Showcasing award-winning work from the Drylands Design Open Ideas Competition the conference brings together professionals and policymakers from across disciplines to ask:
1. How can the American West achieve water conservation and climate change mitigation goals through careful retrofitting of the built environment? Where are the opportunities for maximum harvest of local rainwater, stormwater, greywater, and wastewater resources? Where are the greatest savings in terms of water conservation, energy conservation, and reduced GHG emissions?
2. What role can 'soft path' water infrastructures play? What role can advanced technologies play?
3. How might these strategies benefit low- and middle-income communities?
4. How might these strategies re-shape the West's civic and open spaces?
5. Do these strategies contain guidelines for developing a resilient future, in both industrialized nations and the developing world?
6. What planning and design strategies deployed elsewhere on the globe can be adapted to the West?
7. How are these guidelines most effectively communicated to planners, policy makers, and designers, in the academy and in professional practice?
