The Fairweather Demo is a step-by-step demonstration of a hypothetical Shared Vision Planning and modeling case study designed by Dr. Richard Palmer, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington.

In this example, your responsibility is to organize and lead the shared vision planning   effort.  This website will lead you through the shared vision planning steps, showing how they might be applied in a real world setting.  These steps are always applied iteratively, that is, all the steps are taken very quickly, then taken again with a little more effort and specificity, and so on.  Iteration helps avoid spending too much time and money on planning activities that turn out to be unimportant to the real goals of the community.

Typically, the first iteration is the study manager's initial conception of the problems and opportunities, based on the manager's research - review of previous reports, news items, and personal discussions with stakeholders and agency managers.  The manager has to be careful not to miss important perspectives outside his or her personal experience.  A good way to do that is to use a standard checklist to inventory the uses people have for the water system in question.

Water systems can be used for different purposes, such as municipal water supply, irrigation, hydropower, recreation, dilution of polluted effluent, support for riverine and lake fisheries, navigation, flood control, and ecosystem restoration. 

This is a fairly standard and universal list of purposes, and it should be used as a framework for drafting planning objectives and developing  a list of agency decision makers, subject matter experts, and stakeholders.

Get started with the Fairweather Demo introduction.