The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers recently unveiled "Determining Landscape Plant Water Demand," an ANSI approved standard.

The Irrigation Association recently announced the release of a standard intended to identify the water demands of landscape plants; authored by the American National Standards Institute and the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. The IA originally requested that a standard be developed and the ASABE began doing so in 2011.

Plant scientists and landscape architects teamed with representatives of ASABE, IA, regulatory agencies and the water supply industry to produce ANSI/ASABE S623: Determining Landscape Plant Water Demands. Developed using procedures approved by ANSI, its objective is to help define how much water a given landscape plant needs for a "minimum acceptable appearance." The IA feels that the standard will help landscape and irrigation systems designers and manufacturers, landscape maintenance companies, and water suppliers.

"The process took a long time, but the concepts were vetted extensively and especially for determining plant factors for woody shrubs and trees," said team member and IA industry development director Brent Mecham, CID, CLWM, CIC, CAIS.

IA stated that it will begin to incorporate the standard in its materials, and has passed it along to other organizations that develop green codes and standards for landscaping and irrigation. In the coming weeks it will be available on ASABE's Online Technical Library where the society's members with standards access and site-license privileges can download it for free. Others can purchase a copy from the library or by contacting ASABE. (https://www.asabe.org/).