Watershed or Sewershed?
The website uses these terms almost interchangeably. Pittsburgh, like most cities, has pipe infrastructure that redefine watershed boundaries with man-made infrastructure. A sewershed, like watersheds, is an area of land that drains all water flowing on it to one point. Its highest points are defined by the reach of the sewers and the highest reach of land that flows to those sewers. When discussing surface flow, we will use watershed, and when referring to pipe flows, we will use sewershed.
Priority Watershed or Priority Action Shed?
In 2016 PWSA introduced its "Green First" approach to stormwater management. The agency went through an exhaustive study to identify the 30 sewersheds that demonstrate the greatest potential to reduce overflows and flooding. The One Water map identifies those 30 watersheds. To further prioritize action steps PWSA refined those 30 sewersheds based on the practicalities of urban planning. These six sewersheds (Dark Blue on the One Water Map) are identified by livingwaterspgh as the Priority Action Sheds. A Task Force has been convened for each of these Priority Action Sheds.
