The Planning Associates journeyed to Fort Worth, TX for a one-week course on Watershed Planning. The course instructors included planners, engineers and scientists from USACE and other federal and non-federal agencies who brought a diverse array of perspectives.  The goals of the watershed course were to increase situational awareness of watershed problems and develop creative and critical thinking skills for finding innovative and SMART watershed solutions.

Watershed planning addresses problems, needs and opportunities within a watershed or regional context and strives to achieve integrated water resources management (IWRM).  An integrated watershed management plan includes interdependency of water uses, collaboration and comprehensive solutions. 

The class visited sites on the Dallas Floodway Chain of Wetlands and the Johnson Creek non-structural flood-risk management site (both of which are part of the Trinity River Watershed) to see the types of innovative ecosystem and flood risk management projects that can result from a SMART watershed planning process.