The Arizona Chronic Disease Strategic Plan is a 3-year plan designed to address chronic disease prevention and control. The plan was developed by Arizona stakeholders, both those who currently are and are not engaged in chronic disease prevention and control. To ensure the plan is not “top down” and driven by priorities identified by the state health department, community stakeholders were engaged in developing this strategic plan from the start. This plan was created through a community process and represents voices from across the state.

This plan is intended to provide state level agencies, communities, health care providers, funding agencies, organizations, policy and decision makers, and consumers' direction and support in creating a system of care that proactively addresses the prevention, early detection, and treatment of chronic disease in Arizona. It is hoped the framework presented will encourage the development of partnerships to promote a comprehensive and integrated approach to reducing mortality and morbidity due to chronic disease.

This plan outlines a comprehensive approach to reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease through the most efficient, cost-effective, and evidence-based strategies available. This plan supports current efforts in primary prevention and proposes new primary prevention activities that are specific to cardiovascular disease. The majority of the plan addresses secondary prevention efforts and controlling risk factors in those who already have cardiovascular disease.

Research into the sensitivity and vulnerability of urban water systems in Arizona reveals that managers are more concerned about factors such as population growth projections, economic trends, and revenue flows. Reliance on groundwater resources in many cases obscures recognition of any direct impact of precipitation on water supply. Given the low level of perceived climate risk among many providers interviewed for this study, it would seem unlikely that climate information would be needed. However, pockets of sensitivity and vulnerability to climatic impacts do exist in the four study areas covered in this study.

Conventional wisdom often views the urban water sector as being among the more sensitive sectors in the arid U.S. Southwest. To test this assumption, the Climate Assessment Project for the Southwest analyzed the water budgets of five Arizona cities to determine how severe the impacts would be from the deepest one-, five-, and ten-year droughts on record. Case study sites for the analysis included the Phoenix Active Management Area, Tucson Active Management Area, Santa Cruz Active Management Area, and the Benson and Sierra Vista subwatersheds of the San Pedro River.