watercentered

Watercentered is a term used to describe an approach in design, planning, and policy that places water at the center of decision making. It emphasizes water availability, quality, and hydrological dynamics as primary drivers of spatial form, infrastructure, and governance. Proponents argue that water-centric thinking improves resilience to floods, droughts, and climate variability, and enhances ecosystem services and cultural connections to water bodies.

Applications include urban design that preserves and restores river and shoreline corridors, grey-green infrastructure, rainwater harvesting, wastewater reuse, water-sensitive urban design, and public health improvement through safe water access. In architecture and landscape architecture, watercentered design may involve passive cooling, reflective surfaces, and water features integrated with ecology. In policy, it can guide water rights, allocation, and participatory governance.

Implementation requires cross-disciplinary collaboration among hydrologists, engineers, planners, ecologists, architects, and community stakeholders; data-driven approaches use hydrological models, rainfall-runoff data, and water quality metrics. The term is not tied to a single formal framework; rather, it intersects with related concepts such as water-sensitive design, blue-green infrastructure, integrated water resources management, and resilient design.

Critiques note potential trade-offs with land use, cost, and governance complexity; success depends on clear objectives, equitable access, and measurable outcomes.

See also: water security, hydrology, sustainable design, blue-green infrastructure, integrated water resources management, resilient design.