Educate Reclamation employees and the general public to understand and value the need for water resources research. Determine and provide solutions to critical science and research needs existing throughout the agency. Investigations in the water resources theme area are to support the mission of the Bureau of Reclamation by developing new and improved methodologies, procedures, and techniques leading to improved water resource management. The theme area focuses on water including its distribution and movement above, on the surface, and within the earth. This theme area includes the development of practical decision support systems and tools, analysis of social and economic and environmental issues associated with water management, and the development and application of decision criteria used by water managers.
Coverage ranges from the small watersheds to the large river basins.
To develop and evaluate new technologies for protecting, enhancing, and managing fishery and other aquatic resources associated with present and future Reclamation water resource development projects. To remain on the cutting edge of research that develops and utilizes technology which controls the unwanted proliferation and spread of invasive biological species that impair Reclamation's ability to manage water resources. To investigate and understand the use and design of constructed wetlands in managing water resources on a local as well as a watershed scale. To investigate and understand the impacts of Reclamation projects and related inflows on the water quality and aquatic ecology of streams and rivers. To develop and enhance laboratory chemical analyses methodology, both organic and inorganic.