The Austin Water Utility website recently beat out more than 100,000 other sites from around the world to win an award recognizing its use of technology in water conservation efforts.

The publicly owned water utility was honored July 14–18 during the 2014 Environmental Systems Research Institute International User Conference in San Diego. The award specifically recognizes how Austin Water Utility has used Geographic Information Systems, or GIS technology to help adapt to conditions resulting from the city's multiyear drought by implementing multiple technology-driven conservation methods.

"The city of Austin and Austin Water continue to push the capabilities of our technology and are often a reference account when it comes to implementation best practices," said Veronica Schindler of ESRI's San Antonio regional office in a news release.

Further using technology to aid in its efforts, Austin Water Utility also offers customers access to its collector application, which captures and tracks water use violations in the city by having users capture a photo of a potential watering violation so staff may examine the evidence and determine if a violation occurred.

"The use of this technology and the use of the collector app has greatly enhanced the work flow process and has reduced the need to hire seasonal staff for violation processing," said Jadell Hines, Austin Water Program manager for water conservation in a news release.