FOR WHOM IS THIS PUBLICATION WRITTEN? This publication is written for ever yone living, working, or recreating within the PlanET Region, including residents, property owners, property managers, building operators, planning and design professionals, engineers, developers, community outreach coordinators, and regulator y officials. Each has a role to play in the stewardship of the region’s shared water resources. Regional watersheds are aggregated properties, neighborhoods, and communities. The opportunity, and ultimately the responsibility, to make a positive difference in the health of the region’s water resources comes down to the decisions and actions, both large and small, of individuals. While this publication’s focus is the five-county PlanET Region, the obser vations and recommendations offered herein are relevant and applicable to other parts of Tennessee and the Southeastern United States that face similar water resource stewardship and regulator y compliance challenges.
ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION This publication is a visually-enriched resource that focuses on Anderson, Blount, Loudon, Knox, and Union counties in East Tennessee. It celebrates the region’s iconic landscape and water resources,
discusses their existing condition and threats, and proposes Low Impact Development (LID) as an approach to watershed planning, community design, and site development that avoids, minimizes, and manages impacts to the region’s shared water resources. It is divided into three parts: Part 1 Regional Water Resources, Part 2 Development Impacts, and Part 3 Opportunities for Improvement. For ease of navigation, each page spread features a colored tab on the side of the page that corresponds to the current part. Intended for use as an educational resource, this publication is the latest chapter in an ongoing regional dialogue to identify enhanced water resource management opportunities and to inform policies. Its function as an educational resource is adaptable depending on the need of its audience. It may be used by extension programs and governments to educate constituents, by educators to inspire students, by design and engineering professionals to educate clients, and by regulator y officials to advocate to developers, peers, and policy-makers. This publication is not meant to be a technical reference or a construction manual. Rather, it is intended to promote an understanding of LID practices across watershed, community, and site scales, and to build an audience for a forthcoming Tennessee
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