Confronting the Nation's Water Problems The Role of Research (2004) / Chapter Skim
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4 Status and Evaluation of Water Resources Research in the United States
4 Status and Evaluation of Water Resources Research in the United States
Pages 97-178
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From page 97... ...
SURVEY OF WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH A necessary part of this study involved collecting budget information from federal agencies and significant nonfederal organizations regarding their recent 1Budget in this chapter refers to actual expenditures, unless otherwise noted.
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3There were only nine major FCCSET categories from 1965 to 1970. A tenth (Scientific and Technical Information)
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narrative, saying how your programs that encompass water resources research fall into the different FCCSET categories.
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This was done in recognition of the increased attention being paid to the water needs of aquatic ecosystems over the last 25 years and a corresponding surge in research in this field. The modified FCCSET categories thus comprehensively describe all areas of research in water resources.
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Second, the possibility exists that the committee did not capture all of the relevant federal and nonfederal organizations involved in water resources research, either because these organizations were not approached by the committee or because they chose not to participate. With respect to the federal agencies, the committee is confident that all of the major agencies funding or conducting water resources research within the United States were contacted and that the submitted survey responses represent the vast majority of the federal investment in water resources research.
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are not reflected in the survey. Finally, the varying scope of the modified FCCSET categories must be acknowledged.
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. The only FCCSET category that showed positive growth during this ten-year period was V (water quality management and protection)
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104 (1973 and other and and and and COWRR Facilities Information and Management Planning Management Augmentation Management Works Technical Data Grants, SOURCES: Water Issues and Ecosystem of Cycle Supply Quantity Quality Resources dollars. Water Water Water Resources Engineering Nature Water Water Manpower, Scientific Aquatic I
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That is, greater investment in Category V was seen as essential to meeting various water quality standards in the nation's lakes and rivers, as mandated by the newly minted Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts. Furthermore, in many states, impairment in water quality loomed as a more important constraint on the development of water resources than the issue of supply.
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106 and other SOURCES: and and Facilities Information dollars. and Management Planning Management Works Technical Data Grants, FY2000 Water Issues and Ecosystem of Quantity Resources Water Water Resources Engineering Manpower, constant Nature Scientific Aquatic I
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Note: The National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Tennessee Valley Authority were contacted but chose not to participate in the current survey.
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, it was assumed that the annual data contain measurement errors that are independent from year to year, that the distribution of errors in averages of annual values can be well approximated by a normal distribution, that the standard deviation of the errors in averages of annual values ranges in all cases from 25 percent to 50 percent of the 1,000,000 800,000 thousands) 600,000 ($ 400,000 Total 200,000 Funding 0 1964 1969 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 Year FIGURE 4-4 Total expenditures on water resources research by federal agencies, 1964 2001.
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Water Quantity 59.3 55.1 No change V Water Quality 12.0 28.0 Large decrease VI.
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With respect to the trends over time for the individual major categories, most funding levels have remained stable or have declined since the mid 1970s -- a conclusion supported by the comprehensive uncertainty analysis presented in Table 4-2 and in Appendix C Category V (water quality)
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111 scale. Conservation Control arithmetic Protection other and and and an and and Facilities on Information Planning and Management Augmentation Management trends Management Data Works Grants, Technical the Water Issues and of Cycle Supply Quantity Quality Resources Ecosystem shows Engineering NatureI.
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112 are reported Conservation Control Protection other and Values and and and and Facilities Information scale. Planning and Management Augmentation Management Management Data Works Grants, Technical Water Issues and logarithmic of Cycle Supply Quantity Quality Resources Ecosystem a Engineering uses NatureI.
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Estuaries M Global water cycle problems 0 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 Year FIGURE 4-7 (A)
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and (D) Federal agency funding in FCCSET subcategories of Categories III (water supply augmentation and conservation)
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and (F) Federal agency funding in FCCSET subcategories of Categories V (water quality management and protection)
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and (H) Federal agency funding in FCCSET subcategories of Categories VII (resources data)
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and (J) Federal agency funding in the FCCSET subcategories of Categories IX (manpower, grants, and facilities)
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Federal agency funding in the FCCSET subcategories of Category XI (aquatic ecosystem management and protection)
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The four distinct subcategories of research into the protection and management of aquatic ecosystems constitute a suite of research activities that were largely absent from the nation's water resources research or were thought of more in the context of water quality research in the 1960s. It is interesting to note that the trends for the individual subcategories do not always mirror the trend of their major category.
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Water Quality VI. Water Management and Resources Planning Protection 2% 28% FIGURE 4-8 Percentage of the total federal agency expenditures going to each major FCCSET category for (A)
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. The Directorate for Engineering supports research into water and wastewater treatment; the fate, transport, and modeling of contaminants; and sensors and sensor networks for water quality measurement.
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, II (water cycle) , and V (water quality)
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With one programmatic exception, all water-related research is conducted in-house by USGS scientists. USGS has several types of programs for conducting research: a centrally coordinated National Research Program in the hydrologic sciences; distributed research investigations, including district offices, the National Water Quality Laboratory Methods Group, portions of the National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA)
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, II (water cycle) , and V (water quality management and protection)
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Its research agenda is organized under 22 national programs, one of which is Water Quality and Management, which supports three main programs relevant to the nation's agricultural water resources. The first of these three programs, agricultural watershed management, includes research on water supply and use on irrigated and rain-fed lands to optimize water use and resolve competing demands through establishment of science-based technologies and management.
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Research focuses include watershed management, aquaticterrestrial interactions, fisheries, water quality, and ecology. There are extensive programs of research on watershed management that address issues related to water yields and the maintenance of water quality from forest and range lands.
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Water Quality Management and Protection 22% III. Water Supply Augmentation and IV.
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, which is anticipated to be necessary to support the Corps' large operational mission, and about a fourth of the funds are spent in Category V (water quality management and protection) , which is where almost all SERDP/ESTCP and ONR funds are devoted.
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Water Quantity Technical Management and Information Control <1% 9% V Water Quality Management and Protection 23% VI.
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is strongly dominated by Categories XI (aquatic ecosystems) and V (water quality)
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Much of this research is sponsored by the Environmental Management Science Program, which supports basic research that could enable new, faster, less expensive, and more effective methods for the cleanup of the nuclear weapons complex. As shown in Figure 4-14, DOE's 3.8 percent share of total federal water resources research expenditures is almost exclusively in Category V (water quality management and protection)
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Water Quantity Augmentation and Management and Conservation Control 2% <1% V Water Quality Management and Protection 97% FIGURE 4-14 Department of Energy FY2000 expenditures by major category ($26,053,000 total)
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. NOAA research accounts for 3.7 percent of the federal total, mainly in Categories II, V, and XI, which focus, respectively, on water cycle processes, water quality management and protection in estuarine and freshwater systems, and aquatic ecosystems (Figure 4-15)
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Water Supply Augmentation and Conservation V Water Quality 32% Management and Protection 15% IV.
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Aquatic Ecosystems 7% VII. Resources Data 10% II.
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NCI conducts and supports research and its application to prevent, control, detect, diagnose, and treat cancers. The intramural research unit contacted to respond to the survey was the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics's Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, which conducts epidemiologic studies to evaluate cancer risks and determines whether they are associated with water contaminants, primarily chemicals.
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Research into water supply augmentation and conservation (Category III) is largely through the USDA, although USBR contributes about one-third of the total via desalination work (see Figure 4-20)
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NSF 27% USDA 26% NOAA NASA 6% 6% DoD 4% EPA 9% USBR 1% USGS 21% FIGURE 4-19 FY2000 expenditures in Category II (water cycle) by federal agency ($150,835,000 total)
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NSF USDA 7% 46% EPA 20% NOAA <1% USBR DoD 6% USGS 19% 2% DOE <1% FIGURE 4-21 FY2000 expenditures in Category IV (water quantity management and control) by federal agency ($45,629,000 total)
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Research into water quality management and protection (Category V) is the largest single funding category and is arguably the most widely distributed across agencies.
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applied research. Over half of the research in water resources data (Category VII)
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NSF 1% USBR 4% DoD 92% USGS 3% FIGURE 4-25 FY2000 expenditures in Category VIII (engineering works) by federal agency ($58,118,000 total)
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The importance of extreme events and the effects of global climate change; the fate, transport, and effects of pollutants; the nature and control of nonpoint source pollution; and the maintenance and restoration of aquatic ecosystems are issues that emerged from more than one liaison response and are also priorities for this committee, as reflected in Table 3-1. Each of these is a complex, multifaceted problem that reflects many scientific, economic, and societal factors; thus, the overlap is not surprising.
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. Dollar values reported are constant FY2000 dollars.
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. Dollar values reported are constant FY2000 dollars.
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USDA CSREES Strategic plan not yet defined, but protection and improvement of water quality and reducing society's reliance on freshwater resources are among the issues being discussed. USDA ERS To provide accurate and timely information on (1)
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agriculture in a more global economy · Fate, transport, and effect of agricultural chemicals in watersheds · Total maximum daily load development and agricultural best management practices · Water use efficiency in all sectors of the economy · Integrating knowledge into water quantity and water quality policy to reduce uncertainty in water resources planning and management · Control of unregulated sources of pollution (agricultural nonpoint source pollution, for instance) · Net benefits of alternative reallocations of water across municipal, industrial, agricultural, and in-stream environmental uses · Transfer of water away from agriculture, while minimizing losses to the sector and rural communities · Institutions, such as market systems, that could be used to respond to water shortages · Homeland security and protection of public drinking water sources · Competition for water between in-stream values (aquatic ecosystems and endangered species)
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repair past environmental degradation and prevent future environmental loss, (3) ensure that operating projects perform in a manner to meet authorized purposes and evolving conditions, (4)
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STATUS AND EVALUATION WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH 149 Responses to Survey Question 5 -- Emerging Issues · Future fresh water availability and quality, given population growth and redistribution, climate variability, and increasing demands for water · Better systems and technology for observing precipitation, areal evaporation/ evapotranspiration, soil moisture, groundwater, and snow pack · Improved precipitation forecasts on daily to seasonal time scales · Long-term sustainability of water resources · Understanding the contribution of mountain water reserves · Development of water use statistics · Forecasting and managing water under the extreme droughts and floods · Special problems for water management posed by multijurisdictional watersheds · Strategies and technologies for securing a water supply in the face of climate variability and change and other water management uncertainties · Changing poor policies that affect surface waters and groundwater in the United States · Water and health issues Unanswered · Military range sustainability · Ammonium perchlorate-contaminated groundwater · Dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) characterization and remediation Unanswered continued
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improve the quality and reduce the volume of water discharged from fossil energy operations, including coal mining, coal bed methane and oil/natural gas production, and thermoelectric power generation, and (3) reduce water management costs over conventional technology.
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processes · Development of better predictive models for the fate and transport of contaminants in groundwater and surface water systems · Development of a better understanding of the regional effects of global climate change and their impacts on water availability and quality · Development of a quantitative basis for managing water quality and ecological impacts of storage and conveyance systems · Consequences of global warming on water supply · Use of reclaimed water to meet future demand, and associated complications · Aging of water distribution systems · Changes in water disinfection methods away from the use of chlorination to chloramination or ozonation Unanswered · Issues that affect human exposure to potential and actual contaminants via water resources, and issues that affect fishability, swimmability, and potability of our nation's waters · Enhance and develop our capacity to assess human health consequences of exposure to hazardous substances both current and historically · Ensure that appropriate public health intervention strategies are in place especially for at-risk populations · Ensure that resources are available for the above challenges, while ensuring the nation has the capacity and technology to respond to citizens' requests for assistance with environmental health issues · Assessing and understanding the processes that control the distribution of contaminants and pathogens at low concentration levels · Understanding how to manage a river to protect or restore habitat · Understanding global cycles of water, C, N, P, S, and metals · Evaluating water resource sustainability for ecological and withdrawal use at regional scales · To meet the data needs for these research opportunities, we must have long-term data in accessible databases. The data must adhere to well-documented standards to be useful for examining trends and for understanding and differentiating changes due to climate and land-use patterns continued
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enhancing water supply technologies. Other Agencies EPA Conduct leading-edge, sound scientific research to support the protection of human health through the reduction of human exposure to contaminants in drinking water, in fish and shellfish, and in recreational waters and to support the protection of aquatic ecosystems, specifically, the quality of rivers, lakes, and streams and coastal and ocean waters.
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exposure · Alternative approaches for screening/prioritizing drinking water chemicals · Shift focus from point source discharges to nonpoint sources · More biological indicators for determining aquatic ecosystem condition · Large-scale processes and activities as determinants of water quality · Atmospheric deposition and multimedia sources as water quality determinants · Increase the role of citizen stakeholders in setting watershed management goals and in implementing action programs at the local and watershed levels · More efficient, more nearly accurate models and methods, and more explicit representation of uncertainties in decision-making processes used by EPA · Development of remote sensing capabilities of water quality · Dearth of international observations · Reinvigorating the groundwater and stream gage monitoring systems · Better understanding of the physiological effects of waterborne pollutants on aquatic ecosystems via research on the physiology, behavior, genetics, ecology, and evolution of organisms · Holistic watershed analysis to quantify relationships among catchment characteristics, stream flow, recharge, water quality, and land-use change · New technology and management methods for water and wastewater treatment, desalination, and detection and removal of low-level health-related contaminants · Dynamically interactive modeling to enhance understanding of how aquatic systems evolve over time · Socioeconomic factors that affect individual decisions about water use and the management of water resources by societal institutions · Linking information about fundamental properties of water systems at the molecular level with properties at watershed and landscape scales · How to deal with voluminous data, integrate data of differing scales, incorporate real-time data into models, and assess uncertainty in simulations · Fundamental advances in computational fluid dynamics for use in mathematical modeling of transport in aquatic and other natural systems
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extramural based research basic vs. applied Agriculture USDA ARS 95% internal None mentioned 50% address long-term problems; 50% address short- and midterm problems USDA 100% extramural None mentioned 25% address long-term basic CSREES research issues; 75% address short-term applied research issues USDA ERS >99% internal None mentioned Research projects are designed to inform policy questions that may arise over a midterm time frame USDA USFS >90% internal None mentioned 40% address long-term problems; 60% address short- and midterm problems Commerce NOAA NOS 7080% awarded None mentioned About 70% of the proposed payoff via competitive peer is expected in the 3- to 5-year review, of which time frame, with the remaining 30% 7080% goes to the in the 5- to 10-year time frame extramural academic community NOAA NWS Approximately 20% None mentioned 25% is directed, use-inspired of NWS OHD's research, and 75% is applied research funds are research for improved operations for extramural grants (75% of which are extramural research projects via a competitive program)
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Most projects are funded for 35 years at a time, and may be renewed several times Office of 100% extramural None Short- to intermediate-term applied Fossil Energy research Health and Human Services NIEHS Not answered Not answered Not answered NCI 100% internal None mentioned The studies range from 3 to 30 years, depending on the need for follow-up; primary role is to conduct scientific investigations that are considered by regulatory agencies when developing policy ATSDR 25% internal; None mentioned ATSDR supports applied research, 75% extramural and most studies are completed in 35 years continued
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extramural based research basic vs. applied Interior USGS Almost all is None mentioned Most of the National Research internal except for Program is long-term; about 10% of the Water Resources the rest of the water research done Research Institutes in the water discipline would be classified as long-term USBR 66% internal; Place-based Most of the research has a 33% extramural research may short-term and applied focus double budget; (two large projects were included in a revised response)
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WERF provides funding for applied research of importance to its subscribing members, which include utilities and municipalities, environmental engineering and consulting firms, and industrial organizations. Research areas include primarily water quality issues, particularly pollutants, waste treatment, development of the Total Maximum Daily Load process, and various issues related to water quality management and protection.
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. States and their political subdivisions are becoming increasingly involved in supporting research to resolve local/regional issues particularly in the area of aquatic ecosystems restoration and management, with the ongoing Everglades and San Francisco Bay Delta programs being good examples.
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Water Quantity Ecosystem Management and Management and Control <1% Protection 29% V Water Quality Management and Protection IX.
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The WRRIs, on the other hand, cover the major categories much more uniformly. The Division of Hydrologic Sciences of the Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada, has received around $250,000400,000 annually for a wide range of projects covering seven of the 11 major categories, with water quality control (Subcategory V-G)
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Indeed, when Category XI (aquatic ecosystems) is removed from the survey results, one finds that the federal investment has declined, in constant FY2000 dollars, from a high of $691 million in 1973 to $526 million in 2001 -- a conclusion supported by the uncertainty analysis presented in Appendix C
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Research is not all that is falling behind on a per capita and per GDP basis. Federal expenditures on water infrastructure projects (drinking water and wastewater only)
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Indeed, the difference in the amount of federal support received by the health and water resources fields in FY2000 suggests that health research is 28 times more important than research on water and wastewater services (including all the services provided by aquatic ecosystems)
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164 CONFRONTING THE NATION'S WATER PROBLEMS A B FIGURE 4-32 Trends in (A) nondefense federal research and development and (B)
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Develop new techniques for measuring water flows and water quality, VII-B; including remote sensing and in situ techniques. less II-A; V-A 14.
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Enhance and restore species diversity in aquatic ecosystems XI-A,B 26. Improve manipulation of water quality and quantity parameters to XI-A maintain and enhance aquatic habitats 27.
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Indeed, the country continues to struggle with water laws and institutions devised to address the problems of the 18th and 19th centuries. It will become increasingly difficult to manage water scarcity and deteriorating water quality (see Chapter 1)
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To a lesser extent, the same can be said of research topics #2023 in Table 4-6, which deal with making all sectors, but particularly agriculture, more water efficient. Research in Category III has declined since its height in the late 1960s, when desalination research made up the bulk of the investment in water supply augmentation and conservation issues.
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Better Funded Research Areas Research priorities #38, #11, and #1518 in Table 4-6 fall into FCCSET Categories II (water cycle) and V (water quality)
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This of course in no way negates the importance of safe drinking water or adequate supplies for agriculture, but it does indicate a recognition within funding agencies that society is willing to support the high costs of current efforts to minimize harm to aquatic ecosystems and provide for their repair. Lower-Priority Research Areas Finally, there are obviously many subcategories of water resources research that are funded by the federal agencies but are not mentioned in Table 4-6 as being priorities.
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Category V (water quality management and protection) likewise involves new understanding of contaminant transport, fate, and effect, and draws significant support from NSF and USGS as well as EPA.
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long-term based on the modified FCCSET categories alone. A different approach relies on information provided by the five largest contributing federal agencies regarding the percentage of their funding that is longterm and basic vs.
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, both water use and water institutions are currently underfunded. For reasons discussed above, almost every research priority listed under water institutions belongs to a modified FCCSET category that has seen declining proportions of the federal water resources research budget since the 1960s.
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As argued in Chapter 3, for multiple research agencies to be able to tackle complex emerging water problems in a way that will enhance our understanding beyond an incremental level, the themes of interdisciplinarity, broad systems context, uncertainty, and adaptation must permeate future research in water resources. Although there are a few initiatives that address interdisciplinarity (see Box 4-2 for an example)
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NSF's Biocomplexity Initiative, begun in 1999, emphasizes an inter disciplinary, complex systems approach to environmental research in several areas, of which the programs in coupled human and natural sys tems and coupled biogeochemical cycles are most relevant to water resources research. A recently established NSF Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education indicates that support for this initiative may extend for another decade or more, and it has expressed the need for long-term, well-defined programmatic initiatives in order to incorporate interdisciplinary research and address complex environmental questions and problems (NSF, 2002)
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In particular, it is almost certain that funds in Categories III (water supply augmentation and conservation) , V (water quality management and protection)
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1981. Federal Water Resources Research: A Review of the Proposed Five-Year Program Plan.
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2004. Mission of the Water Resources Discipline.
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