Planning for Drought

Local Drought Plans

Instead of waiting to deal with drought haphazardly when it inevitably occurs, local planning entities and individual citizens are beginning to develop drought plans. Some of the plans are required by state law and others are through the voluntary efforts of concerned citizens. Most of the plans still focus primarily on drought response measures but a few also include mitigation actions that are implemented before a drought occurs.

Additional effort is needed to incorporate more mitigation actions into local drought planning programs. Examples of local drought plans that are available on the Internet are provided in this section in order to provide guidelines to initiate planning.

Regional Drought Plans

• Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
• Clifton Water District, Grand Junction, Palisade, and Ute Water Conservation District, Colorado  
• Southern Nevada Water Authority
• Denver Water
  

County Drought Plans

• Arizona County Drought Plans
• Butte County, California
• Santa Barbara County, California

City Drought Plans

• Arizona: Glendale, Mesa, Peoria, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe
• California: Urban Drough Guidebook (2008)
• Colorado: Boulder, Denver, Fort Lupton, Longmont
• Georgia: Carrollton
• Kansas: Gardner
• Nebraska: Lincoln
• New Hampshire: Hanover
• New York: New York
• Texas: College Station, Corpus Christi, Dennison, Duncanville, Fredericksburg, Friendswood, Georgetown, Irving, Lubbock, Sugar Land, Waxahachie
  

University Drought Plans

• University of Nevada-Las Vegas

Watershed Authorities

• Colorado River Municipal Water District, Colorado  
• Big Hole River Watershed Committee, Montana
• Flathead Lakers, Montana
• Jordan Lake, North Carolina
• Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Washington D.C.