Drought-Ready Communities: Decatur, IL pilot project

The Drought-Ready Communities Project is a pilot program to develop a water-supply planning toolkit for communities, watersheds, and industries. This will allow these entities to assess and address their drought vulnerabilities. The project is a collaborative effort between the National Drought Mitigation Center, the Oklahoma Climate Center, and the University of Illinois — Illinois State Water Survey.

In particular, this talk addresses the experiences of the Illinois group as they interviewed various groups involved in water production and usage in the Decatur, Illinois area. In particular, emphasis is placed on the contrasting cost-benefit perceptions of these groups, as an example of a drought-sensitive medium-sized city with a surface water supply.