GROUNDWATER ZONING IN WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT1

In today's society the planned management of groundwater resources has played an increasingly greater role. One means of insuring the protection of groundwater quantity and quality is a regional zoning of groundwater resources. Regional zoning means to classify a given region with regard to hydrogeological characteristics and to evaluate and determine the possible use of each zone. The necessary assumption is the appropriate knowledge of geological structure (compiled in a geological map) and of hydrogeological conditions (compiled in a hydrogeological map). The basis for subdivision is a hydrogeological unit distinguished and delineated on the basis of lithological, stratigraphical, structural, and hydrogeological characteristics. It should have its own distinct hydrological system. The hydrogeological region is the basic unit. Regions may be grouped into larger units: hydrogeological provinces and realms. The subdivision of regions into hydrogeological zones, or subzones when applicable, forms the basis for a groundwater development plan.     

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.     

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.     

WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST1

ABSTRACT. The water resources manager, concerned with providing for citizen needs for water in all its varied aspects, is obliged to consider the public interest in his decision making. But the public interest, although inferring the superiority of public over purely private interests, is more of a concept of political ethics than an operational objective. Recent attacks on water resources developments place in question just how responsive the water resources manager has been to the public at large during the planning process. The recent broadening of planning objectives beyond economic efficiency to include greater attention to social goals is an encouraging development. Efforts should be expanded toward greater citizen participation and more attention should be given to sampling surveys to determine citizen attitudes on water resources proposals. In the last analysis, the decision-making process must combine the expertise of the water resources manager and the participation of the people through the political process.     

THE ROLE OF ADVISORY BOARDS IN A WATER MANAGEMENT AGENCY1

ABSTRACT: Since Saskatchewan assumed the responsibility for managing the Province's water resources in 1930, the importance of the Province's water resources has been recognized by assigning the responsibility for managing the resource to higher levels in the government structure. With such recognition, there tended to be an overlapping of responsibilities that resulted in undefined areas of jurisdiction and duplication of services. Also, there was no opportunity for direct public participation in the management structure. These deficiencies were recognized, and following a series of public hearings a “Cabinet Committee on Water Concerns” in 1983 concluded that the most appropriate government structure for managing the water resources of Saskatchewan would be a Crown corporation. As a result, in 1984 the Saskatchewan Water Corporation was formed and given the responsibility to manage, administer, develop, control, and protect the water and related land resources in Saskatchewan. An important aspect of this responsibility was that the corporation should initiate a process of public involvement. Thus, six “Regional Watershed Advisory Boards” were established. The Advisory Boards provide the Corporation with a linkage to the general public by providing advice, participating in policy revision and development, and assisting Corporation staff in other related water management activities.     

WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITIES1

The entire water resources field is not contemplated, although reference thereto will be registered. Water supply for potable and hygienic purposes will be presented as symbolic of the global issues confronting 4.8 billion people. Some two billion of these live in the so-called developing or less favored countries. They are either underserved or not served at all by utility systems of whatever grade. Targets for meeting their needs were exemplified by the international agencies in the International Water and Sanitation Decade of 1980-1990. Some successes are apparent, but, in general, hopes are not fulfilled. The pace of accomplishment is very slow. Constraints will be reviewed in some detail. Challenges for reducing these and increasing pace of installations are presented. The potential for a global public works program unprecedented in history is reviewed. Several issues will not be discussed in this paper. Their omission rests primarily upon the fact that their resolution is improbable for decades ahead, if ever. Economists have categorized water as any other economic commodity - and should always be subject to benefit-cost scrutiny. I do not share that view. People could well live without the telephone or the automobile, a destroyer. Without water, their survival is a matter of days. Cost-benefit seems unreal and singularly inappropriate under such circumstances. Secondly, the search for quantifying the health impact of safe water goes on forever. My view is that the results speak for themselves - while sturdy souls continue to seek out the exact correlation figure. Thirdly, the population explosion, although softened a bit, proceeds apace while I write. Lastly, the exposition herein is restricted to potable water and its associated sanitation aspects. Other major uses of water, obviously highly important, are not addressed.     

EFFECTIVE WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN THE URBAN SETTING1

Water resources management in the urban areas of the United States to be effective must include dimensions far beyond water supply and sewerage. This paper concerns itself with those problem areas of water resource management outside of potable water supply and sanitary sewers. These areas include flood plain management, greenways and blueways, storm water, vistas of waterways, and other attributes of living in or near a water-related environment. The perceptions and attitudes of the concerned public and community power structure must be known in order to manage the water environment effectively. Methods of measuring these perceptions and attitudes are described and ways in which the resulting citizen-resource can be tapped and used as a management device are explored.     

LAND AND WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT1

Traditional conservation measures may not be, and usually are not, all that is needed to assure a quality environment. They are, however, fundamental. A national course of action involving land and water management is determined (1) at the market place, (2) at the ballot box, and (3) in the hearts and minds of individuals. To inform people about environmental management and conservation and appropriate uses of land, water and related resources is an exceedingly difficult problem. Research, action and educational programs dealing with environmental problems must have greater attention and support.     

WATER MARKETS AND DECENTRALIZED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES1

ABSTRACT: Because of its importance and the perceived inability of private sector sources to meet water demands, many countries have depended on the public sector to provide water services for their populations. Yet this has resulted in many inefficient public water projects and in inadequate supplies of good quality and reliable water. Decentralization of water management, including the use of water markets, cannot solve all of these water problems, but it can improve the efficiency of water allocation. When given adequate responsibility and authority, water user associations have effectively taken over water management activities at a savings to tax payers. Moreover, water markets add the potential benefit of improving water efficiency within a sector as well as providing a mechanism for reallocating water among sectors. The key question involves developing innovative mechanisms for reducing the transaction costs of organizing water users and of making water trades. Water rights need to be established which are recorded, tradable, enforceable, and separate from land if markets are to operate effectively. Also, institutions are needed that effectively resolve conflicts over water rights, including third party impacts and water quality concerns.     

THE ROLE OF CITIZEN ADVISORY GROUPS IN WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the significant conclusions of research conducted over a four-year period, the purpose of which was to analyze the operation of three citizen advisory groups established in conjunction with Level B Studies of the New England River Basins Commission. The three Studies were the Long Island Sound Study, the Southeastern New England Study, and the Supplemental Flood Management Study of the Connecticut River Basin Program. The research examined the criteria and procedures used for selection of members, the relevant personal characteristics of the members, the procedures employed for carrying out their responsibilities, and the relative importance of group functions as perceived by both citizen advisors and professional study participants. The impact of these factors upon the effectiveness of citizen advisory groups as a strategy of public participation is evaluated. The paper includes recommendations, derived from the research, for the use of planning agencies seeking to maximize the effectiveness of citizen advisory groups.     

CONJUNCTIVE MANAGEMENT OF WATER RESOURCES IN THE CONTEXT OF TEXAS WATER LAW1

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the critical interaction between existing Texas water law and the state's water resources. Conjunctive use and management of interrelated water resources, though seldom practiced, is generally considered desirable. However, a significant barrier to the coordinated, efficient use and management of water resources is the legal division of water in the various phases of the hydrologic cycle into different classes and recognition of well-defined water rights in the separate phases. Several examples of the problems which relate to, or result from, present Texas water law and which prevent correlated water resource management are discussed. Any substantive revision of Texas law, particularly ground water law, will apparently be difficult to achieve in the immediate future, primarily because of the large number of recognized private water rights and the political power inherent in them. Data necessary for operation of conjunctive management systems are gradually being acquired, and perhaps someday other hydrologic phases can be integrated with surface and ground water. Nevertheless, Texas courts and the legislature have sufficient information on the interrelated hydrologic cycle so that prospective water conflicts should be anticipated and avoided. Great care must be exercised in the recognition of new types of private water rights or extension of existing rights, because this institutional structure, once established, presents a formidable obstacle to desirable revisions of the law.     

INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT OF QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF URBAN WATER RESOURCES1

ABSTRACT. This paper will present a total water quality-quantity management approach which has incorporated the costs of water pollution control and water treatment, the benefits of water-based activities, and the trade-off between low flow augmentation and water quality improvement in its consideration. The analytical framework is based on the decomposition procedures provided by dynamic programming within which the optimal management plans are developed.     

THE DYNAMICS OF WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT1

The traditional approach to water resources management for urban areas has been based on the examination of needs and the design of separate facilities for water supply, drainage, and waste water collection and treatment. The complexity and interaction among the separate systems required by a metropolitan area has complicated their management and promoted research interest in developing a methodology for better coordination. However, a more thorough evaluation of the problem reveals the real research need to be both more complicated and different in character than the problem in systems analysis suggested by the first superficial glance. Water management relates to the much broader problem of community design; when, where, and in what manner should new urban development take place. Furthermore, the character and needs of areas within the metropolis are constantly changing. The key distinctiveness of urban water management is the imperative for design and operation flexibility. The key research need is to develop new designs, operation procedures, and institutional arrangements to make the flexibility demanded by a dynamic urban community possible.     

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.