ADDRESSING SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN WATER RESOURCES PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT1

Understanding social goals and objectives and incorporating them in water resources planning, management, education and engineering processes is the key to solving many current and emerging water resources problems. Water resources professionals must turn more of their attention to this issue. Various avenues are open for their involvement. They include lobbying, participating in government, education and research, publishing, establishing institutions, interacting with the public and analyzing existing systems.     

DESIRED AND ACHIEVED OUTCOMES IN FEDERAL WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT Local or project level planning occurs within most federal water resources programs. Such planning involves both federal and local participants, and commonly involves a range of interest groups. It is necessary to know what goals these participants believe the planning process ought to achieve in order to design planning procedures which will meet their expectations. Social judgment analysis was used to elicit those goals for respondents who had participated in one of five different federal water resources programs, in one of five different roles. Respondents also evaluated the extent to which the planning activities in a recent project in which they had participated had actually attained the posited goals. The respondents believed that responsiveness to local problems was significantly more important than resolving conflicts or increasing public understanding. A fourth goal, achieving national objectives, was believed to be less important than the other three. No significant differences in these goal evaluations were associated with the type of program in which the respondents had participated. However, there were significant differences associated with the respondent's role in the planning process. Respondents' ratings of the effectiveness of actual planning projects varied by both program and respondent role.     

INCOMMENSURABLES AND TRADEOFFS IN WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: Society has many objectives, many of which are not commensurable. This incommensurability problem is generally referred to as the multiple objective problem and leads to the notion of tradeoffs. Various approaches to calculating tradeoffs in water resource development have been advocated by several authors. Many have made errors in the context of the conceptural model presented in this paper. It is argued the correct framework for tradeoff analysis is the neoclassical economic model. The relevant tradeoffs, then, are really price ratios. These, in turn, must be calculated in such a manner as to allow comparison of product mixes where the expenditure on resources is the same. This is where several authors have erred. An empirical example which illustrates the correct application of the model is presented.     

THE ENGINEER'S ROLE IN WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

Engineers have traditionally led the planning effort in water resources developments. The engineer's leadership role in water resources, as well as in many other planning activities, has been challenged by technical and scientific people as well as by the general public for insensitivity to social, aesthetic, ecological, and political problems created by planning. The paper draws attention to the fact that the engineer cannot continue to expect the role of leadership to fall to him unless he prepares himself properly for that role. However, it is brought out that the engineer, by his education and training, is still the best qualified among all the representatives of the various disciplines associated with water resources planning to lead the planning effort if he prepares himself for the task. The requirements for preparation for leading water resources planning are outlined.     

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS IN WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

Historically, the main objective of water resources development has been economic efficiency, and the technique for its evaluation has been benefit-cost analysis. Gradually other objectives have emerged, and these in order of their emergence are regional income redistribution, environmental quality and social well-being. These multi-objectives have given rise to multifarious problems, and have made the planning process much more complex than ever before. The different objectives are not mutually exclusive, and, hence, contributions to one can only be made at the expense of others. Trade-off studies between different objectives are difficult to make. It is suggested that one way to overcome this difficulty could be to design a system to perform optimally in terms of one objective, subject to a specified level of performance of the other, which in effect becomes a constraint. The paper also discusses the pros and cons of the desirability of public participation in our decision-making processes, and the necessity of developing social sciences models to aid water planning and management.     

SOCIAL WELL-BEING AND WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: For many years, Federal water resources projects have been subjected to benefit-cost analysis to establish their economic feasibility. Several years ago social well-being was added as a consideration. This paper discusses the state-of-the-art in analyzing and evaluating aspects of social well-being. It stresses current short-falls and advocates a direction for further efforts.     

PROBLEMS OF WATER RESOURCES PLANNING IN INDIA1

ABSTRACT Water resources planning in India since the First Five-Year Plan (1951-1956) has been a very important part of national development planning. However, records show that the results of such planning in the last three decades have fallen short of expectations because of various complex factors. Most of the limiting factors are administrative, political, legal, and philosophical, involving premature comprehensive planning, arbitrary selection of plan targets, administrative “red-tape,” ineffective coordination among water resources related departments, and water ownership conflicts among various states and with neighboring countries. Other constraints are related to a lack of adequate dependable data, the inadequacy of project feasibility studies, and a lack of social and political discipline necessary for adequate mobilization of financial resources.     

A PROCESS FOR FEDERAL WATER PLANNING AT THE FIELD LEVEL1

ABSTRACT: A process for planning at the field offices of Federal water resources agencies is described. The process involve s both planners and publics in the following four planning activities: problem definition, formulation of alternatives, impact analysis and evaluation (or plan ranking). Evaluative factors are defied as the goals, concerns, constraints, etc. that affected publics and other decision makers consider in ranking alternative actions. These factors serve to drive the entire process and glue the four planning activities together. In contrast to other “models” of the planning process, the four activities are considered to be carried out simultaneously and continually from the beginning of the process. As the planning process proceeds, each activity is repeated a number of times at increasing levels of detail. Various aspects of the process are illustrated by means of an example involving water resources development in Carmel Valley, California.     

NORMALIZED AGRICULTURAL PRICES AND WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: Short-term fluctuations in agricultural markets necesitate adjustments in market prices for use in water resources planning. Two procudures for this price normalizing are described and evaluated. The linear treand and weighted average normalizing procedures perform reasonably well, except in cases of dramatic price oscillations.     

ACHIEVING PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS,WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT Public interest in all governmental agency planning has increased greatly in recent years. The program of the Corps of Engineers for obtaining direct public input to its water resources planning is described. Implementing policies, guidelines, and activities are summarized. Experiences with public involvement are discussed. Some basic problems that have surfaced in carrying out the program are cited.     

NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR LOCAL UNITS OF GOVERNMENT IN WATER RESOURCES PLANNING: INSIGHTS FOR IMPLEMENTATION FROM RECENT WATER RESOURCES PLANNING RESEARCH1

ABSTRACT: Recent Federal and some State legislation has enlarged the scope of permitted or required actions of local units of government in water resources management and protection. Much of the legislation encourages local units of government to introduce water resources planning measures which will be preventive instead of corrective. Extensive public works measures, environmental destruction and the threat to human life can thus be eliminated or reduced. Research has developed and tested a method for identifying the elements of a water resources protection program for small urbanizing watersheds which was technically adequate and socially acceptable to the communities implementing such programs. Research results suggest that deliberate efforts will be necessary to inform and educate local units of government as to the usefulness of the legislation; and that the program must reflect local natural resource conditions and local preferences for the method of accomplishing the protection. Successful implementation could be restrained by inertia of local units of government, a lack of tradition in such programs, and hostile existing agencies.     

A SCREENING MODEL FOR WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: Techniques of optimization and simulation are merged to select the most efficient arrangement of components for regional water resources development and management. Application is made to the Elkhorn River Basin in Nebraska. The Basin extends over 7,000 square miles and includes 184 proposed reservoirs. Structure sizes, locations and operating policies are selected for optimal plans based on economic efficiency and regional development. Results indicate that substantial savings in time and costs over conventional planning techniques are effected. Agreement between model output and agency design values was noted.     

PLANNING PROCESS FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN REGIONAL WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: The state of Texas passed legislation in 1997 that established a process for developing a 50‐year state water plan through a bottoms‐up approach involving representation from at least 11 recommended special interest groups. Moorhouse Associates Inc. was contracted to develop and implement a Public Participation Plan for the South Central Texas Region. The two goals of the public process were to take planning information out to the public and to provide a format for bringing the public opinion back to the planning group. The overall goal of the project was to provide public input throughout the planning process that will facilitate the development of a water plan that is widely accepted by the public. By using county government to establish focus groups, participation was encouraged from all of the twenty‐one counties in the region. The tools used in the process included an Internet site, surveys, focus groups, public meetings, community group presentations, media communications, and newspaper clippings. The public participation process as implemented, maintained communication throughout the planning process and at key decision points. This ongoing communication helped alleviate an initial uneasiness with the integrated resource planning approach.     

APPLICATION OF CRITICAL PATH METHOD TO WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT. The task of resource management, in this case water resources, is rapidly becoming more complex, particularly because decision making is often contingent upon various prior activities and sets of data. Comprehensive planning is required in order to prevent misallocation of resources or mismanagement in resource development. Such planning involves five general phases which are applicable to any problem faced by society: (1) problem identification; (2) formulation of alternatives; (3) evaluation of alternatives; (4) implementation; (5) review. There have been many attempts to simplify the planning process and effectively carry out these five phases. The experience of the Alberta Water Resources Division has been that the Critical Path Method is one of the most useful tools available today for planning. It involves two basic steps: (1) preparation of a network diagram which (a) identifies all the activities necessary for the completion of a project, (b) correctly sequences these activities, (c) allocates resources; and (2) mathematical computations for scheduling the activities. In other words, this approach breaks a task down into smaller units or activities for easier organization, scheduling, and performance for eventual completion of the project. This paper will illustrate the effectiveness of the Critical Path Method by discussing its application to actual water resources projects.     

A PROCEDURE FOR ASSESSING WATER RESOURCES FOR URBAN PLANNING1

A matrix has been developed to guide the assessment of urban water resources. The matrix provides a means for determining the relative importance of water-related problems, and for identifying the data needed to evaluate these problems for the purpose of urban planning. The matrix columns list nine categories of potential water-related urban problems. The rows list 51 categories of data inputs which may be needed to evaluate the potential problems. The inputs include standard types of basic hydrologic data, information based on analysis and interpretation of these data, and information on the interfacing factors of climate, land, and culture. A system is described for ranking the relative importance of the problem categories and data inputs on a numerical scale of 0 to 3. From this, an index is derived that evaluates the relative importance of each input item to an overall program for water resource assessment. From the completed matrix the hydrologist can determine the availability of data to meet the identified requirements. Judgement can then be made as to priorities on work elements to provide the planner with maximum information in minimum time. The matrix also provides a basis for the development of programs and their funding in order to overcome critical data deficiencies.     

THEORY AND REALITY IN ALLOCATING FEDERAL RESOURCES TO WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT1

ABSTRACT: Federal spending on water resource development projects exceeds $10 billion annually. This paper examines the economic theory and practice on which the Federal water resource development plans are based. Existing theoretical and applied problems result in overinvestment. These include 1) no standard of value for the tradeoff of environmental objectives with economic objectives; 2) benefits based on “willingness to pay,” but beneficiaries pay only a fraction of a project's costs; 3) beneficiaries “shop around” among program purposes in order to reduce their commitments; and 4) benefit/cost (B/C) analyses are based on a discount rate, which is consistently below the Federal borrowing rate. Furthermore, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) frequently finds that the agency regulations are inadequate and result in inconsistent and questionable benefit computations. The President has proposed a series of water policy reforms, to reduce some of the apparent overinvestment in water resource development, but fundmental corrective action rests with the members of Congress.     

RIVER BASIN WATER PLANNING ORGANIZATIONS IN THE 60's1

ABSTRACT: The 15 federal-state interagency river basin studies (designated as Type 2 or Level B in the planning program of the Water Resources Council) of the 1960's brought together in each of the study regions, in many cases for the fist time, state and federal water resources agencies, and afforded an opportunity for coordination. Examination of the studies, however, reveals that many organizational problems remain to be solved in preparing truly comprehensive plans that effectively integrate and balance the diverse values held by study participants and concerned citizens. Burgeoning changes in state and federal laws, in planning concepts, and in public attitudes influenced the studies. Increased interest in the environment and greater emphasis on a multiple objective approach to planning for example, had significant effect. The type of organization used for carrying out these studies was a coordinating committee with one of the agencies - in most cases, the Corps of Engineers, - serving as lead agency. Some of the observed weaknesses of this arrangement were the lack of an effective mechanism for screening individual agency project proposals; unbalanced participation of agencies - for example, construction vs. non-construction, state vs. federal; agency representatives without sufficient delegated authority; insufficient control of the planning organization over individual agency participation and punctuality; and lack of emphasis on plan formulation and public participation. Suggested improvements, some of which are already being implemented in more recent studies include centralized planning staff and funding, formalized work agreements, a dynamic and continuous planning process with mechanisms for monitoring technological and social changes and evaluating planning effectiveness, planning guidelines and evaluative criteria, and a formalized training program for planners.     

INTEGRATING SOCIAL ANALYSIS INTO WATER RESOURCES PLANNING: SOME EMERGING TRENDS IN THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS1

ABSTRACT: While federal water resources laws and regulations require social analysis, no one workable formula exists for integrating it into water resources planning. Two primary problems in integrating social analysis into planning are examined; making trade-offs between policy acceptability and theoretical competence, and managing social analysis in planning. For illustration, the article builds on emerging trends within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It concludes by observing that creative application of social theory to policy problems along with innovative data gathering techniques are the primary routes to managing these problems.