Protection, development and management of local water resources enable communities to reduce their reliance upon imported water and other more costly supplies. Additional factors that should influence water districts and agencies to pursue a more aggressive strategy of optimizing local water resources include:  long-term budgetary constraints, rising energy costs, new green house gas regulations, greater supply variability due to climate change, more stringent water quality regulations, and addressing environmental demands.

The concept follows the premise of thinking globally while acting locally.  Traditionally, local water resources were the first to be developed, often leading to overuse and/or degradation. Impacts to supplies often resulted in associations with others in similar circumstances for larger water importation projects.  While this was an effective strategy for removing local barriers imposed by water supply limits, it often created new environmental, legal and political issues at the imported supply source and along the conveyance system.

Returning to an emphasis of local water supplies, communities have the opportunity to achieve a closer, more cost-effective and secure management of their water resources.

EcoLayers provides the appropriate platform to put all of your water supply, demand, land use, regulatory, and economic data to work for you. Platform functionality can be customized to meet specific project and organizational needs. .

Maximize Local Water Supply Development 

• Forecast demand for all water supplies throughout your service area producing greater accuracy, reliability, and long-term sustainability
• Optimize the development, use, and re-use of new and existing water supplies
• Fully integrate your water supply portfolio to balance investments based on marginal cost analysis
• Develop accurate and current information on each of your water supply options for decision making support in Capital Improvement Project planning, short and long-term investment strategies
• Integrate wholesale and retail agency planning and operations

Improve Cost Effectiveness of Water Conservation Program 

• Target conservation investments based on annual volume conserved; service-area characteristics; marginal cost analysis; and other factors
• Integrate conservation savings into your water supply portfolio
• Identify cost effectiveness of existing programs (save money now) 

Help better meet Regulatory Compliance & Reporting Requirements 

• Improve communications and reporting throughout your organization and to the public
• More easily track conservation savings and quickly produce status reports 

Enable Conservation Billing 

• Achieve permanent service-area water conservation savings tailored to your community
• Determine cost-effectiveness and return on investment for individual conservation Best Management Practices
• Use data mining to target conservation by attribute including: geography, neighborhood, management practices, season, water supply, etc.
• Deliver accurate reporting to increase your capture of state and federal grant and loan awards