Florida Waterwise Landscapes - Alliance for Water Efficiency

What Is Waterwise Landscaping?
Waterwise is a common sense way to landscape
that conserves water and protects the environment.
The main objective of waterwise landscaping is to
establish and maintain a healthy landscape by
matching the right plants with existing site conditions
so that the use of additional resources, such as water,
fertilizer, pesticides and labor, is minimized. In
addition to helping conserve water resources,
waterwise landscaping practices reduce the amount of
pollutants reaching water bodies because fewer yard
chemicals are used. Fertilizers and pesticides can
contaminate water bodies when they are washed out of
the yard with the rain, in stormwater runoff.
The best time to establish a drought-tolerant
water-conserving landscape for your home or
commercial property is long before a drought. Once
established, the right plant in the right place will be
highly self-sufficient, needing little help to survive
nature’s extremes. Healthy, well-placed plants with
deep, established root systems will need less help to
survive a drought.
Conserving our water supply and reducing
water pollution have become important issues in
our growing communities. Despite Florida’s humid
climate and abundant surface water bodies, water
shortages do occur here. Demand can overtake
supply, and regional droughts force Floridians to
practice water conservation as a way of life.
In many Florida households, as much as half of
household water is used outdoors, mostly for lawn
and garden irrigation. Ninety percent of all public
water supply in Florida comes from underground
sources, primarily the Floridan aquifer. The aquifer’s
resources are limited. Each day we pump billions of
gallons of water from the Floridan aquifer, but the
rate at which the groundwater system refills, or
recharges, from rain is far less. On average, Florida
receives 54 inches of rainfall yearly.
Taking too much water out of the aquifers,
known as overpumping, threatens potable water
3
supplies, but it also increases the occurrence of
sinkhole formations. Because the aquifer system is
connected to surface water bodies in some areas,
overpumping the aquifers causes lowered water
levels — or drawdowns — of our vital wetlands
and lakes.
Inches
44
48
52
56
60
64
Average Annual Rainfall
1961—1990
1961–1990
Likewise, fresh groundwater sources can be
threatened by saltwater intrusion. Saltwater
intrusion occurs when too much freshwater is
pumped from an aquifer, allowing salt water to
move into voids in the aquifer from the ocean or
the Gulf of Mexico; ancient brackish seawater
below the freshwater level of the aquifer can also
move into these voids.
Florida’s water management districts have
declared water resource caution areas throughout
the state in areas where overpumping or saltwater
intrusion has occurred. A water resource caution area
is an area where the current source of public water
supply is not adequate or may not be adequate to
meet public water supply demands in 20 years.