One Water Communities
One Water is a collaborative planning and implementation approach that fosters integrated and equitable management of water resources for long-term resilience and reliability, meeting both community and ecosystem needs.
A “One Water Community” holistically manages all water systems to meet the needs of all people and the environment, today and in the future.
One Water Communities
Self-Assessment Framework & Rating System
Communities throughout the world are transitioning toward the One Water approach to improve efficiency and reduce costs while addressing climate change adaptation, resilience to extreme events, and social equity and environmental justice.
One Water is a collaborative planning and implementation approach that fosters integrated and equitable management of water resources for long-term resilience and reliability, meeting both community and ecosystem needs.
In 2024, we published the One Water Communities (OWC) Self-Assessment Framework (WRF #4969) to enable utilities and stakeholders to develop coherent One Water strategies at both the city and multijurisdictional metropolitan levels.
Our team introduces this Framework with commensurate indicators and a 1-to-5 rating system to measure progress toward implementation of One Water goals, strategies, and implementation actions.
Key Elements
Key Elements of One Water are defined to inform community-specific goals and characterized by subcategories of indicators that should be collectively considered and incorporated at all stages of the development, implementation, and assessment of One Water plans and strategies.
Levels of Achievement
The OWC Framework includes three “Levels” by which communities can evaluate their One Water strategies, practices, and outcomes against appropriate expectations: Level 1 – Onboarding, Level 2 – Progressing, and Level 3 – Advancing.
Action Categories
The OWC Framework encompasses three Levels, each characterized by five Action Categories. Moving from one OWC Level to the next entails implementing appropriate actions with specific outcomes.
Key Elements
Nine Key Elements of a One Water Community are defined to engage a broad audience of One Water champions by breaking down silos and facilitating conversations through a common methodology and language to communicate within and across agencies and audiences.
These Key Elements inform the specific goals of the One Water approach in the community and are characterized by subcategories of indicators that should be collectively considered and incorporated at all stages of the development, implementation, and assessment of One Water plans and strategies.
The assessment of the Key Elements (i.e., goals) and subcategories (i.e., specific objectives) is informed by a set of baseline, benchmarking, and performance indicators and metrics that are selected appropriately for each assessment level.
Levels of Achievement
The OWC Framework can be used to track progress through levels of demonstrated achievement. The Framework includes “Levels” by which communities can evaluate their One Water strategies, practices, and outcomes against appropriate expectations of performance and includes three Levels that are oriented toward processes and actions:
Level 1: Onboarding
Level 2: Progressing
Level 3: Advancing
A community begins by setting the foundations for their One Water approach. This includes developing an understanding of existing conditions and establishing direction through a shared vision and a set of objectives commensurate with Key Elements for One Water Communities. The primary focus of this assessment level is on the alignment of leadership and resources while gathering essential information required to assess opportunities for collaboration across city organizations and engagement with the community at large.
A community builds upon its shared One Water vision and objectives to identify and develop plans for One Water policy, management, and technological solutions. Key cross-organizational partnerships are forged to identify One Water strategies to meet the intended goals of the One Water program in the face of emerging opportunities and threats.
This assessment level entails development of key indicators, metrics, and desired targets to assess the progress of the One Water program.
A community adaptively implements the One Water Plan recommendations. Implementation and adaptation are informed by continuously monitoring key performance metrics in the face of evolving conditions. Efforts are supported and reinforced by both internal and external stakeholders. Procedures are established to update the initial One Water Plan based on changing conditions and regular feedback from stakeholders. Best practices are adopted to facilitate transparency in communication of outcomes and verification of the reported progress.
Action Categories
The OWC Framework encompasses three Levels, each characterized by five Action Categories. Moving from one OWC Level to the next entails implementing appropriate actions with specific outcomes. Thus, it is possible that a city is more advanced in some respects and is lagging in others. The Framework incorporates the consideration that communities may be at different Levels across relevant Action Categories.
One Water Monitoring
One Water Communities indicators are used to measure progress toward achieving an organization’s One Water vision and objectives. Monitoring progress helps align a city’s resources with implementation actions and characterize how a community changes and adapts to future challenges.
For each self-assessment Level, the community establishes a common set of baseline, benchmarking, and performance indicators that are used to monitor progress toward the desired targets and the collective One Water objectives. The methodologies used to monitor progress for each indicator should be clearly described, replicable, and transparent.
Level 1: Baseline
Level 2: Benchmark
Level 3: Performance
Characterize the state of water resources, water systems, and water management strategies using a set of indicators that are readily available.
Establish representative indicators with desired targets to track progress toward programmatic goals.
Develop and quantify performance indicators to monitor improvements in key One Water elements at appropriate time intervals and spatial scales.
The self-assessment framework helps a community better understand and prioritize their organization’s commitments to One Water practices. The Framework is intended to promote and facilitate collaboration and communication both within and across agencies as well as foster public engagement and communication with key stakeholders and policy makers.
To successfully implement the Framework, an organization exhibits teamwork, collaboration, and integration of related cross-jurisdictional departments and/or agencies. The procedures for the implementation of the frameworks include: (1) pre-assessment; (2) self-assessment by One Water Action Categories; (3) self-assessment by One Water Levels; and (4) Monitoring, evaluation, and documentation of progress.
We offer One Water coaching services!
We offer tailored guidance designed to help utilities and municipalities create and implement One Water programs. By taking a holistic approach to managing water resources, we can help you address water supply, water quality, and ecosystem health while balancing the triple bottom line.
We aim to help organizations identify effective strategies and viable technological, policy, institutional, and financial pathways toward One Water.
If you’re interested in learning more about how we can support your One Water initiatives, our team can help you get started.
Let’s work together to build resilient water systems that serve the needs of today and future generations!