Using multi-spectral satellite imagery, digital terrain models, and geotechnical datasets, Divining LA is a digital tool for urban design in water stressed environments, applied to the city of Los Angeles. It models precipitation, soil quality, land use, and groundwater contamination in a dynamic, publicly-accessible instrument for architects, landscape designers, and planners. It aims to maximize low-carbon localized water supply, reduce dependence on water imports, and to guide water-smart planning.

Providing information on zoning and building policy, the information-based script supports site assessment for public and private investment. Led by the Arid Lands Institute, the tool is produced in collaboration with agencies and universities across the city, with applications worldwide.

Read project feature in 4th Holcim Awards 2014/2015 (flip-book)

Peter Arnold, Arid Lands Institute won a Holcim Awards Acknowledgement for “Divining LA: Digital tool for urban design and water-use planning”. The project can be applied for more than 1 billion people in water-scarce environments worldwide.

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The winning projects of the Holcim Awards 2014 for North America are at the cutting edge of efficiency and innovation in sustainable construction. The top prize went to a water supply and flood mitigation project in Las Vegas designed by Amy Mielke and Caitlin Taylor. BIG’s urban flood-protection concept for lower Manhattan was conferred the silver Award, and a zero-carbon compostable structure recently on display at MoMA New York designed by David Benjamin received bronze.

Acknowledgement prizes were presented to Sheila Kennedy and J Frano Violich of Kennedy & Violich Architecture of Boston for the Chrysanthemum Building; architects Nader Tehrani and Katherine Faulkner of NADAAA in Boston for the renovation and extension of the University of Toronto’s John H Daniels building; a public park and interactive wall for urban revival in Seattle by Paris-based ABF-lab architects; and to Peter and Hadley Arnold of the Arid Lands Institute, Woodbury University for Divining LA, a digital tool for urban design and water-use planning in Los Angeles.

Watch video of all 4 Acknowledgement prize winners

As unusual as this entry might seem for a competition dedicated to construction, it is nonetheless commended as a construction technology by the jury for strategically reassessing storm water runoff in urban contexts. The jury specifically appreciates the proposal’s value as a design tool – a digital device with an ethical agenda. Here, technology is used at its best, as a means to compile valuable data on the constitution of territories, to foreground and prioritize important information, and to raise awareness of site specific conditions for analysis and design. The proposal offers the necessary grounds to address water scarcity as both a technical and social matter of concern for all.

Using multi-spectral satellite imagery, digital terrain models, and geotechnical datasets, Divining LA is a digital tool for urban design in water stressed environments, applied to Los Angeles, CA, USA. It models precipitation, soil quality, land use, and groundwater contamination in a dynamic, publicly-accessible instrument for architects, landscape designers, and planners. It aims to maximize low-carbon localized water supply, reduce dependence on water imports, and to guide water-smart planning. Providing information on zoning and building policy, the information-based script supports site assessment for public and private investment.