Project Prioritization Tool

The Project Prioritization Tool (PPT) is a conservation decision-making tool to increase the adoption of water infiltration practices, improve groundwater recharge, and protect agricultural land in the San Joaquin Valley (SJV). AFT and the Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) developed this PPT manual based on the data analysis of the San Joaquin Land and Water Strategy report.

SJV stakeholders can use the PPT to select and support projects with the most significant potential to effectively infiltrate and conserve water. SJV stakeholders can identify and prepare priority agricultural land acquisition and technical assistance projects while supporting land use planning decision-making. The PPT consolidates relevant and public information to identify and protect California's most productive, resilient, and versatile farmland. The interactive and modular mapping platform provides users with a default “start-up map” with layers dedicated to farmland quality, development threat level, crops, and water resources, among other data. 

The tool can be used at a high level to evaluate regional trends or can be zoomed in to see the characteristics of an individual parcel of land. The PPT is well suited for a first level of review for farmland protection, stewardship practices, and other valuable functions.