Deadline: 13-Dec-22
The Water Research Foundation (WRF) is calling for proposals for Back to the Future: Guidance for Adaptive and Scenario Supply Planning Approaches.
This project is funded by The Water Research Foundation (WRF) as part of WRF’s Research Priority Program.
Project Objectives
- Identify the institutional processes and frameworks utilities are using to monitor how supply conditions change over time. Identify what indicators are being tracked, considering reservoir storage, water demand, financial resources, climate, hydrology, water quality, regulations (i.e., SDWA, CWA, ESA), equity, etc., and determine best practices.
- Describe and provide guidance on how utilities identify and monitor drivers of change, develop scenarios, and incorporate them into adaptive planning approaches.
- Describe the value and limitations of trigger points and monitoring (e.g., ability to plan for large disruptive events).
- Describe and provide guidance on how utilities establish resiliency goals, use adaptive and scenario planning to identify infrastructure needs and make investment decisions, and quantify and develop performance metrics to measure the level of resiliency achieved.
- Describe examples of tools and models used in adaptive and scenario planning and provide guidance for utilities in selecting the appropriate tools/models for their situation.
- Describe and provide guidance on how utilities incorporate public involvement into the adaptive planning process, particularly in dealing with sensitive issues around alternative/contaminated supplies, the use of less preferred strategies, and in situations of significant public opposition.
Research Approach
This RFP is partially flexible in the specified research approach to encourage creativity and originality from proposers. The following research approach outline is provided as a starting point. The suggested approach items below should be included in the proposal and proposers are encouraged to provide additional/modified approaches. Proposers should describe how they will conduct the research to meet the objectives listed above.
- Literature review regarding water supply planning approaches that consider uncertainty and flexibility, including scenario planning, adaptive planning, decision-scaling, robust decision making, and other similar water supply planning approaches and case studies.
- In-depth interviews (or small to large-scale workshops) for case study development with utility experts to ask why scenario/adaptive planning approaches are effective at helping utilities make supply investment decisions, including what worked, what didn’t work, and why.
- Identify best practices, limitations, and possible solutions to overcome those limitations.
- Develop planning guidance (with communications guidance).
Funding Information
- Applicants may request up to $250,000 in WRF funds for this project.
- The anticipated period of performance for this project is up to 24 months from the contract start date. Proposers should provide a proposed high-level schedule that fits within this timeframe.
Eligibility Criteria
Proposals will be accepted from domestic or international entities, including educational institutions, research organizations, governmental agencies, and consultants or other for-profit entities.
For more information, visit https://www.waterrf.org/open-rfps