Design an irrigation system to comply with California's Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (MWELO), including hydrozoning and Maximum Applied Water Allowance (MAWA) calculations.
domain: California Dept. of Water Resources (water.ca.gov) · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Confirm whether the project is subject to the state MWELO or a local agency's own ordinance that is at least as effective, since cities/counties may adopt a customized version.
Group the planting plan into hydrozones — areas where all plants share similar water and sun needs — as the ordinance's organizing unit for irrigation design.
Apply the ordinance's fixed irrigation efficiency assumptions (0.75 for overhead spray devices, 0.81 for drip systems) when calculating water use, regardless of a specific product's marketed efficiency.
Calculate the site's Maximum Applied Water Allowance (MAWA), noting Special Landscape Areas (recreation areas, edible-plant areas, recycled-water-irrigated areas) are allowed an ETAF up to 1.0 versus the lower cap for standard landscape areas.
Submit the required MWELO compliance/performance documentation (e.g., water budget worksheet) to the local permitting agency before landscape installation.
Known gotchas
MWELO uses fixed regulatory efficiency values (0.75 spray / 0.81 drip) in its calculations regardless of the actual manufacturer-rated efficiency of installed equipment — don't substitute a product's marketed efficiency number into the compliance math.
Local jurisdictions can adopt their own ordinance that is 'at least as effective' as the state model — always confirm whether the specific city/county has a customized local ordinance superseding the state MWELO defaults.
Special Landscape Areas get a materially higher water allowance (ETAF up to 1.0) than standard areas — misclassifying a hydrozone as 'special' when it doesn't qualify can produce a non-compliant water budget.
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