Water and Sustainability Symposium

Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin

February 16th and 17th, 2009

University of Florida, Gainesville, Fl

Human settlement, from cities and their roadways to buildings and their plumbing, have changed the historic patterns and quality of water flowing across landscapes to streams, rivers, and oceans.  How can the design professions influence water consumption by humans and associated issues of quantity and quality, mitigate water-related disasters, meet expectations for community aesthetics and ensure that natural systems get their due? 

This topic will be explored using the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint watershed as an exemplary case study.  This watershed and the rivers that it feeds extend from western North Carolina southward into Georgia and Alabama and then into Florida where it meets the Gulf of Mexico near the small community of Apalachicola.  The majority of the greater Atlanta metropolitan area sits within the upper third of the watershed; and it and other rapidly growing urban areas in the watershed are placing increased pressure on the finite quantity of available water also resulting in altered water quality.  The result is competition with the region's historic water consumers, its natural systems and agriculture.