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Water Policy & Management

“When the well's dry, we know the worth of water”—Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac 1732

The Water Policy & Management initiative is a collaborative of scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, located at universitiesagencies and firms in the US and abroad brought  together virtually to address national and international water resources policy challenges and to support other activities to improve the quality of decision making on critical water resource issues. Attention is focused on contemporary water resources management and policy development; systems approaches to water project development (including watershed planning); and flood risk management.

The Challenge

As the world moves ahead in the 21st Century, it faces both old and new challenges to the sustainable use of its water resources, The specter of global climate change and the changes in water availability that it may bring about coupled with significant increases in water demand resulting from population growth focus attention on how water is being used now and what might be its distribution over the decades ahead. Industrialization and the exponential rise in new substances that find their way into water, threaten the utility of the water that is available. At the same time, the growing population must deal with the challenges of increasing flood losses, demands for more hydropower, recreational use of water and `protection and enhancement of those species that rely on a steady flow of clean water. Integration of the many aspects of water resources management is driven by policies established at the highest levels of government. Policies focusing on single aspects of water use are sure to conflict with each other and the history of water development validates this statement.

The Response

The Water Policy Collaborative has been chartered in response to this major challenge. Growing out of independent efforts in engineering, economics, public policy, and the social sciences; and from program activities in government, industry, and academe; the Collaborative provides a forum for strategic thinking on present and emerging factors influencing water science, technology, and policy. Issues arising from water resources management are complex. Dramatic population increases around the world, largely in urban areas, present the greatest challenges to our ability to provide high quality water for potable use. This need for potable water many times competes with the needs of agriculture, industry and other economic sectors, and with ecosystem needs for sustainability. The Collaborative adopts a systems approach to understanding regional water management challenges, and involves experts from many disciplines in seeking new solutions.

A New Paradigm for a New Century: What Does the Collaborative Do?

1. Develops new paradigms for 21st century water resources management
2. Links universities, industry and government for open discussions on critical water policy issues.
3. Provides educational programs for senior government managers in water-related agencies of US federal and state governments, the national administrations of other countries, and international organizations;
4. Facilitates the effective performance of cutting edge water policy research.
5. Supports Masters of Public Policy programs through existing on campus vehicles.

The Collaborative is building a new paradigm for water resources management, moving away from the current 19th C. utilitarian model of cost-benefit analysis, national economic development objectives, and deterministic approaches, to a model better suited to the challenges ahead.

During the middle of the last century, engineers, economists, political scientists, and other scholars assembled in Cambridge to examine what lessons might be learned from the experience of developing water resource projects during the first half of the 20th Century. Lessons of depression-era water resource projects, such as TVA, had yet to be synthesized, and the new management tools arising out of WWII – operations research and systems analysis – had yet to be exploited in federal planning.

The confluence of these two historical trends provided the opportunity for a turning point in wa-ter resources policy. The efforts of what was to become internationally known as the Harvard Water Project led to a new paradigm for water resources planning based on then new concepts of management science, new concepts that were simultaneously revolutionizing American industry.

Today, we again sit at a time of change in the way society views water resources and in the technologies that support the effective use of those resources. Greater importance is now given to the environmental and ecological benefits of our water resources, and to rationally management of ecosystems. Public participation and collaboration in water policy development has replaced public notice of government action. The impact of risk and uncertainty both on economic evaluation and on insurance against hazards has gained new importance. The advent of information technologies never dreamed of in the early 20th C., and advances in economic theory and business management have vastly improved the potential for sound decision making.

Educational Programs

Partners and associates within the Collaborative offer graduate-level degree programs for full-time students and mid-career professionals in water resources management and public policy. At the University of Maryland these programs are offered through a unique partnership between the A.J. Clark School of Engineering, the School of Public Affairs, and the Academy of Leadership, in cooperation with universities around the world. The programs offer a mix of resident courses held on the College Park campus, and at various venues within the Washington, DC region. Courses are also delivered online via the worldwide web for students and professionals not resident in the Washington area. In addition to its degree programs, the Collaborative will offer executive short course programs on a continuing calendar throughout the year, as well as specially tailored to specific organizations.

Research Activities

The Collaborative hosts a broad spectrum of sponsored research programs in water resources management and policy. These range from civil and environmental engineering projects, to economics, to public policy, to sustainable development, and to the social sciences. Sponsorship for these research activities comes from federal and state agencies, private foundations, and industry. Results of these programs are reported in a series of periodic reports and published volumes.

Who has worked with the Collaborative?

Academe, Agencies and industry:
US Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Emergency Management Agency , Ontario Power Generation, British Columbia Hydro, State of California, US Bureau of Reclamation, Simon Fraser University, MD Department of Natural Resources, University of Iowa, Michael Baker Corporation, HDR Inc, Watershed Concepts, Water Advocates

The Collaborative is hosted and sponsored by the University of Maryland.

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