Water Resources Research in the 21st Century

Abstract

In 2001, the Water Science and Technology Board of the National Research Council published a report entitled: Envisioning the Agenda for Water Resources Research in the Twenty-First Century (NRC 2001). The report was the result of a series of discussions held by the Board about the need for a cohesive national water resources research vision for the twenty-first century. That vision included research agenda setting, the coordination of research, and appropriate levels of public investment in water resources research. The Board developed a list of 43 high priority research topics which were cast broadly in recognition of the fact that the specific focus and emphases of resulting studies ought to reflect both the circumstances and the knowledge available at the time the research is undertaken. The Board arrayed these 43 topics in three broad categories: 1) water availability; 2) water use; and 3) water institutions. The categories were structured so as to be interrelated, with the notion of water availability emphasizing the fact that water quantity and water quality jointly determine water availability, while water use includes all of the factors that affect wants and demands for water. Water institutions were treated separately to highlight the importance of research on institutions and to acknowledge that institutional questions fall within the purview of a different set of disciplines than do questions of water availability and water use. The report also examined a range of issues related to how the nation should organize for water resources research (NRC 2001). Congressional interest in the findings of this report developed soon after its release. The fiscal year 2002 Interior Appropriations Bill was based upon a Conference Committee report which concluded, in part: The managers concur with the House direction to contract with the National Academy of Sciences to examine water resources research funded by all Federal agencies and by significant non-Federal organizations.