MODELING & PLANNING
Now that our Science and Policy team has given you a frighteningly clear understanding of your water resource problems, you need a plan. Let’s say your goal is to restore the L.A. River to a thriving ecosystem with clean water for the 4.5 million people who live in it’s watershed… how do you start to reverse-engineer over 100-years of water cycle degradation, and how the heck will you pay for it? No big deal! Craftwater’s Modeling and Planning team guides our partners to smart, defensible decisions about which projects and programs to implement, where, and when. Like your very own Sim City, we get a kick out of building a parallel universe and giving you the controls to virtually test-drive your wildest water ideas. We then mind-meld with the models, and layer in realistic funding and financing strategies to plot an actionable, affordable pathway to success, Then we turn it over to the Feasibility and Design team to take it the rest of the way.
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Implementation-oriented, engineering-driven plans
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Most trusted planners in LA County, overhauling structural and non-structural implementation plans
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Cutting edge modeling and analytical tools
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Consensus-driven recommendations through trusted, personal relationships
EXAMPLE PROJECT
Upper LA River Compliance Plan
Our team overhauled the Upper Los Angeles River’s previously ambiguous compliance plan into a more buildable, affordable, and effective capital-project-driven program. Analysis suggests that this approach could reduce the watershed group’s implementation costs by 70% ($5B!) and reduce the number of required projects by an order of magnitude, while still demonstrating reasonable assurance of compliance. Our approach included a virtual “Easter egg hunt” to find hidden stormwater capture project opportunities throughout the largest watershed in LA County, site-level engineering feasibility review of each opportunity, first-of-its-kind modeling to simulate compliance progress and community benefits, and distillation of implementation-oriented recommendations into an interactive, web-based project pipeline. The technical rigor of our compliance planning philosophy was lauded as “unprecedented in the region” by independent peer reviewers.
