(214) Every Drop: A Game Plan for a Healthy City, Denver Parks and Recreation Water Conservation

We will give an overview of the Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR) Game Plan for a Healthy City guiding principle of “Every Drop,” which emphasizes responsible water use and describes the DPR Water Conservation Program successes and innovations in achieving these goals. We will start with the past program initiatives, including the Central Control buildout, Denver Water partnerships, and advanced water budgeting and consumption reports. We also will discuss present day innovative programs, such as our Drone Monitoring program, weather station network, water restructuring magnets, and our newly formed Lake Management Program. We will then discuss the future of the program, which will be creating DPR water manager positions once the Central Control buildout is complete and continuing our collaborative Recycled Water Advisory Committee, which studies the effects of re-use water on vegetation in urban parks. The future also holds advanced water budgeting that will account for water requirements for different landscape typologies.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand various water conservation strategies used at one of the largest park systems in the semi-arid West and the headwaters of the Colorado River.
2. Learn about successful implementation of water conservation strategies in a park maintenance program.
3. Learn about innovation in water conservation.