The River Basin Concept as seen from a Management Perspective in USA

Abstract

In the USA interest in river basins as units for water planning began in the late 19th century as technological progress in engineering provided data for such broader approaches. The emphasis on integrated, comprehensive river basin planning peaked in the 1930s and 1940s as epitomized by the Tennessee Valley Authority experience and New Deal emphasis on rational decision making. Well into the 1950s efforts to intertwine the water concepts of river basin development with regional economic and social planning continued to receive support. But for various reasons in the 1960s till today river basin development and regional planning have pulled apart, river basin management being limited largely to hydrological aspects of river systems engineering. Regional planning and development, in turn, has ceased to focus on the river basin, becoming primarily concerned with inter-related urban socioeconomic and political factors and forces with some attention to environmental values and constraints. Thus regions have become foci for urban socio-economic and political analyses, and river basins continue as significant hydrological planning units for efficient control of water resources.