Water Catchment Scale Planning and Conservation

Water catchments are widely recognized as the most effective management unit for the protection of water resources, both water quality and supply. A water catchment (commonly referred to as a “watershed”) is an area of land where all water flows to a single stream, river, lake or even ocean. Natural boundaries of water catchments can be very small for a single creek or stream or quite large, the Colorado River basin for example. HCA encourages the use of the term “water catchment” over “watershed”. A water catchment area is home to a complete water-cycle system. In order to manage these systems for a healthy future, we must learn to catch, conserve and make wise use of all water in the system, rather than “shed” that water away as the term “watershed” implies. read more