Preparing for the Twenty-First Century A Report to the USGS Water Resources Division (1991) / Chapter Skim
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4 Future WRD Organization
4 Future WRD Organization
Pages 31-37
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From page 31... ...
This chapter suggests how the WRD can allocate its resources to cultivate multiscale projects in the three areas that encompass most of its work: data collection, problem evaluation, and fundamental research. The chapter also recommends how a WRD reorganization could promote interdisciplinary and regional research.
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From page 32... ...
Such decisions, however, should be made only after careful consideration. Problem Evaluation The types of problems the WRD helps local governments address range vastly in scope: from large, regional projects such as the investigation of saltwater intrusion into the Hudson River to small projects such as determining the amount of a particular agricultural chemical in the runoff of a midwestern farm field.
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From page 33... ...
The committee believes that, in the future, the fraction of district resources allotted to regional-scale projects must be increased. Research into how to measure, interpret, and quantify ground water flow and water quality in extensive regional aquifers should receive more attention than studies of contamination at one site.
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From page 34... ...
Second, we believe the WRD should continue to administer the grants program authorized under the Water Resources Research Act. The current arrangement, though it is funded at a grossly inadequate level, benefits the WRD, the university research community, the states and regions in which the Water Resources Research Institutes are located, and the water resources profession in general.
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From page 35... ...
Each center could have three subsections: one to direct federal/state cooperative programs, one to oversee data collection for federal programs like NAWQA, and one to undertake fundamental research. Each center's research section could house a staff of scientists who would form a center of excellence for a specialized water science discipline.
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From page 36... ...
For example, we have suggested consolidated centers as one organizational model, but the additional administrative layers that accompany larger offices could increase the layers of bureaucracy to the point of slowing research. Combining offices could also endanger contact with local and state governments and citizens' groups; unique geographic problems in geology demand that the WRD maintain a strong presence at the state level.
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From page 37... ...
In updating its mission statement, the WRD should encourage input from all parts of the agency as well as from outside experts. A coherent- national program cannot emerge by sweeping together a loosely related collection of initiatives that originate in the districts or from individual scientists.
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