Integrated Water Resource Management

Abstract

The overly complex nature of water resource management is one of the driving forces behind the movement to replace the nation’s piecemeal approach to water management with an Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) approach. IWRM requires considering not only local water supply in all its forms or distribution designs, but also the economic, social, and ecological environments affected by water, together with the interests and concerns of all water users, and a new level of water resource management planning by state and local agencies cooperating with the traditional federal water managers. The IWRM model is not a single blueprint for water management, but rather a flexible system of concerns that are designed to help local communities solve their own water resource problems in ways that best meet their particular needs.