Building a regional vision for water in Southwest Pennsylvania (Northern Counties of SW PA)

Important Information:

Instead of two face-to-face meetings in two different locations, as per the March plan, we will now host two sets of virtual meetings, each set comprising of three one-hour zoom meetings and focused on a geographic sub-region. The three meetings in each ‘set’ are connected and build on one another but we felt that given you are participating from your computers, spreading out the sessions would be a better engagement experience. As they are a set, we ask that you only RSVP is you can reasonably commit to participating in all three meetings.

Set 1: Tuesday 3-4pm EST on 12, 19 and 26 May 2020

Please RSVP to attend this set of meetings if your water-related interests are mostly focused on Lawrence, Beaver, Butler, Armstrong, Indiana or the northern half of Allegheny Counties.

Description

In early 2019, the Heinz Endowment asked the Water Center at the University of Pennsylvania to undertake an assessment of the ’State of the Waters’ in Southwest PA focusing on capabilities, priorities and drivers of the region’s water stakeholders. Initial findings from this assessment are captured in a phase 1 report (Report Link).

As a next step, the Water Center at Penn staff and an initial small group of SW PA water stakeholders are organizing a series of regional stakeholder forums to discuss the report’s proposed pathway forward for the region focused on the question:-

– How do we adapt water policy, systems and practices such that we protect public health and the environment while encouraging innovation, growth, resilience, sustainability, equity and justice?

In particular, this forum is an opportunity for input and dialogue regarding the creation of a collaborative multi-stakeholder network. This is a key part of a larger process aimed at connecting and leveraging existing issue-based or location-based efforts to encourage regional integrated water resource management.

The structured part of the evening will be from 5.30-7.30pm with food and networking to follow. Participants must RSVP via Eventbrite to ensure provision of adequate space and catering.

Please contact Alison De Luise (adeluise@sas.upenn.edu) with questions.

(Image Credit: Margaret Luzier, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library)