Integrating Water-Quality into a Water Resources Research Agenda

A 20-year agenda for water resources research will need to dedicate substantial attention to water quality and assimilate water quality into traditional concerns about water availability and allocation. Water quality is inseparably linked to the utility of available water and to the viability of social and environmental systems. Unfortunately, water quality has received relatively little consideration in water resources research relative to water quantity and has been treated in isolation of other aspects of water resources. At the global scale, a water resources research agenda should address the threats that poor water quality makes to global water resources and ecological sustainability and, conversely, the adverse effects that poor environmental management can have on water quality. At the local scale, water resources research should adopt methods of integrated watershed management to ensure that water quality is included in management and planning. At all scales, water resources research must be cognizant of the threat that poor water quality imposes on human health and the quality of life. Fundamental changes have taken place in resource and environmental management with regards to global environmental change and sustainability, integration of systems and management activities at the small watershed scale, and the potential for ecological damage and threats to public health from modern and legacy sources of contamination. These changes require that water quality be a central concern incorporated and fully integrated into a vibrant 20-year water resources research agenda. A recent study of water resources research needed in the U.S. for the coming century (National Research Council 2001), concluded that 20th century water resources research focused too narrowly on water quantity, took a short-term view, failed to afford adequate consideration of water quality, and tended to treat water quality in isolation. The study called for a holistic view of water resources research with more consideration of environmental contaminants and their effects on water quality. They recommended a broader framework for water resources research that incorporates water quality data acquisition, recognizes legacy pollution, and acknowledges the vulnerability and resilience of environmental systems to non-point source pollution loadings. ...the legacy of pollution that has already occurred must be addressed, in addition to the new sources of pollution that are currently going unabated. In particular, greater research is required on nonpoint source pollution, which accounts for nearly three quarters of the contaminant loading to surface water and groundwater in the United States... More knowledge is needed about the susceptibility and resilience of terrestrial and aquatic environments to contaminant loadings, as the long-term impacts of contaminant accumulation may eventually undermine overall ecological function. The successful management of water quality in the twenty-first century will require a more comprehensive understanding of the ways in which the environment processes contaminants, how those processes vary, and their robustness as contaminant loads grow... (National Research Council 2001:14-15).