Land Use in the Occoquan River Watershed

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Core Principle 1: Watersheds are natural systems that we can work with


Occoquan Water Supply Protection

In the mid-eighties, several counties in the rapidly urbanizing area of Virginia developed a comprehensive land use plan for the Occoquan Reservoir watershed and adopted zoning ordinances regulating the location, type, and intensity of future land uses. This was done after maximizing the limits of treatment technology for the wastewater treatment plants discharging into the tributaries upstream of the reservoir and after intensive data collection and model development. Fairfax County took the lead in working with basin partners to study different land use development scenarios and how well they met multiple objectives such as:

  • improved transportation system
  • economic development
  • efficient provision of community services, and
  • no degradation of the Occoquan water supply.

Depending on the sensitivity of land areas in meeting specific objectives, portions of the watershed were strategically upzoned and others downzoned.

Case Study Links:

   Cooper River Corridor Project, SC
   Occoquan Watershed, VA
   North Carolina Statewide Framework
   Boulder Creek Watershed, CO
   Merrimack River Initiative, New England
   Washington Statewide Framework

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