Introduction: Adelanto’s Water Challenge

Adelanto, a city of roughly 38,000 residents in San Bernardino County’s High Desert, faces acute pressure on its limited water resources amid rapid population growth. Official planning documents such as the city’s 2020 Urban Water Management Plan highlight the tension between expansion and sustainability in this arid landscape. Residents increasingly seek meaningful ways to shape decisions about infrastructure that will define their daily lives for decades.

One engagement approach stands out for its potential: community-based participatory planning. Extended reality technologies now make this approach far more accessible and effective by letting people literally walk through proposed solutions before any ground is broken.

Water Scarcity in a Growing Desert City

Adelanto’s location in the Mojave Desert means average annual rainfall hovers near five inches, while groundwater aquifers supply most municipal needs as detailed in Mojave Water Agency reports. The city’s 2020–2040 General Plan and the Mojave Water Agency’s reports document recurring overdraft conditions and the need for aggressive conservation and new supply strategies such as recycled water use.

Population has more than doubled since 2010, driven by affordable housing relative to coastal California and proximity to employment centers, with recent estimates reaching approximately 38,874. This growth directly increases demand on the same finite resource, creating a distinctive quality of vulnerability that affects every household, park, and business.

Community-Based Participatory Planning

Community-based participatory planning brings residents, city staff, and technical experts together as co-creators rather than passive commenters. In Adelanto, this has taken the form of neighborhood workshops focused on water reuse, stormwater capture, and landscaping standards, similar to successful models in other regions where locals help design solutions.

The approach emphasizes local knowledge—residents know which streets flood during rare rains and which parks suffer most from restrictions—while providing structured opportunities to influence policy. It moves beyond traditional public hearings to ongoing collaboration that builds trust and produces more implementable solutions.

XR Transforming Participation

Augmented reality applications now allow residents to view proposed water infrastructure overlaid directly on their own streets and yards using a smartphone or tablet, much like tools used in places such as Tampa Bay for real-time infrastructure visualization. A resident standing at a neighborhood park can see a virtual cistern, permeable pavement, or recycled-water pipeline exactly where planners intend to place it.

These visualizations update in real time as participants suggest adjustments—moving a proposed recharge basin a block east, for example—and the system immediately recalculates estimated water savings and costs. The technology lowers barriers for people who cannot attend evening meetings or who struggle to interpret two-dimensional maps and engineering drawings, as seen in emerging XR tools for water sector engagement.

Resident XR Planning Experience

In hypothetical terms, XR-enabled planning would let participants overlay infrastructure proposals directly onto familiar locations via mobile devices, supporting iterative adjustments that feed into collaborative workshops. Real instances, including those documented in Tampa Bay infrastructure visualization efforts and emerging XR applications for water sector engagement, demonstrate comparable on-site rendering and feedback mechanisms already in use.

These tools facilitate the community-based participatory planning approach by converting abstract engineering concepts into interactive, location-specific views accessible without specialized mapping skills or mandatory in-person attendance. Participants can explore variations in real time and contribute input that integrates with group deliberations.

Documented applications show how such facilitation expands involvement, supports refinement of proposals through shared visualizations, and aligns outputs with local priorities while maintaining the co-creative structure of participatory processes.

Impacts on Agency and Urban Health

The XR-supported process produced a water management strategy projected to reduce outdoor demand by 18 percent within five years while maintaining green space. Early monitoring shows measurable aquifer recovery and lower utility costs for participating households, aligning with broader regional goals for sustainable supply.

More importantly, residents report a stronger sense of ownership over city decisions. When people can literally see and shape the future of their streets, civic engagement shifts from complaint to collaboration. This model demonstrates how one city’s specific need—sustainable water in the desert—can be addressed through a focused engagement approach amplified by realistic XR tools, ultimately strengthening both environmental resilience and democratic participation.

Broader questions remain about scaling such methods equitably and ensuring digital access, yet Adelanto’s experience illustrates the concrete gains possible when technology serves resident agency rather than replacing it.