A comprehensive approach to water resource management is needed to address the myriad water quality problems that exist today from nonpoint and point sources as well as from habitat degradation. The WPA is a management approach for more effectively protecting and restoring aquatic ecosystems and protecting human health. The WPA recognizes that water quality management must embrace human and ecosystem health and that managing for one without considering the other can be detrimental to both. The WPA allows managing a range of inputs for specific outputs. Further, a watershed approach can provide benefits to individual citizens and the public and private sectors.
Individual citizens benefit because watershed protection improves the environment.
The public sector benefits because agencies can accomplish more through cooperation with other stakeholders than they can on their own with limited resources. The participation of local organizations ensures that those who are likely to be most familiar with a watershed, its problems, and possible solutions play a major part, often a leadership role. The private sector can benefit because the burden of water resource protection is distributed more equitably among pollution sources. All stakeholders benefit because they can participate in decisionmaking that is based on a comprehensive assessment of the watershed including all interacting aquifers. The features of the WPA shown in Figure 1-1 include a strong monitoring and evaluation component.