“Urban Planning for Headwater Wetlands and Coastal Water Quality,” a workshop, will be held on Friday, Oct. 17, 2014, at the 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center, 30945 Five Rivers Blvd., Spanish Fort, Alabama, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Land planners and municipal leaders play important roles in promoting low impact designs that sustain wetlands for societal benefits, such as good water quality, water storage and critical habitats. This free workshop is for land planners, city/county officials and others interested in learning about the importance of headwaters for local water quality. Urban development can have direct and indirect impacts on wetlands. Attendees will learn about urban planning measures that can help sustain wetlands and their benefits.
The workshop will be taught by university scientists and extension specialists. Workshop partners include Auburn University, The Auburn University Center for Environmental Studies at the Urban-Rural Interface, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium.
During the workshop, participants will learn about headwater wetlands and streams, important features and benefits headwater wetlands provide, how headwater wetlands benefit local water quality and how urban development may compromise this benefit, how modeling may be used to assess watershed-level benefits that headwater wetlands provide, and how modeling can be used to project changes in water quality based on land use change and wetland condition.
The workshop includes a field trip to Spanish Fort and Bay Minette area headwater wetlands.
To register, please email Christian Miller at christian@auburn.edu or Lisa Pogue at poguelo@auburn.edu or call 251-438-5690 by Oct. 14, 2014 (space is limited). There is no cost to participate in the workshop. In addition each participant will be provided lunch. It is anticipated that AICP CM credits and CEUs will be available.