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You are not logged in. You can use the site as much as you like as a guest. If you'd like to save your results, you can create a free account by clicking the Register link above at any time. Once you register, you can create and save several different landscape designs for comparison.
Who Should Use this Website?
This calculator is for homeowners, landscape professionals, developers, and anyone else who wants to see how much water, time and money can be saved by creating a river-friendly landscape
, converting a conventional landscape to a more sustainable one, or simply maintaining an existing landscape in a more sustainable way. Also, this tool will estimate the amount of greenhouse gases that can be reduced using river-friendly principles, primarily as a result of conserving water (and the energy used to deliver clean water) and recycling green waste on site, rather than hauling it to a landfill.
Why should I use this page?
The calculator walks you through some simple steps to define the characteristics of your landscape and your maintenance practices. At the end, the calculator estimates the amount of water your landscape needs, as well as green waste and greenhouse gas emissions it produces, and the cost and labor required to maintain it, as compared to both a river-friendly landscape and a conventional one.
What will I learn from this website?
The results section of this calculator compares benefits of your landscape to a conventional landscape and a river-friendly one. Our hypothetical conventional landscape is a mostly a traditional lawn, with some medium-to-high water use flowers and shrubs, and an ordinary sprinkler irrigation system. Our river-friendly garden is made up of entirely low-water use, drought tolerant California natives and Mediterranean plants and has an efficient drip irrigation system. Finally, the calculator provides suggestions for making your landscape more river friendly.
Note: Click on this icon to get more information or help on different topics on the calculator page.
Updated Jan 13, 2012. Please note that this is a beta version, and the site is still under active development.