Sustainability Criteria for Water Resource Systems

by
Task Committee on Sustainability Criteria, Water Resources Planning and Management Division, ASCE and the Working Group of UNESCO/IHP IV Project M-4.3

American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, VA
978-0-7844-0331-0 (ISBN-13) | 0-7844-0331-7 (ISBN-10), 1998, Soft Cover, Pg. xxiv, 253
22 cm
Out of Print: Not available at ASCE Bookstore.


Document Type: Book

Abstract:

This committee report, Sustainability Criteria for Water Resource Systems, addresses the need and challenge to reexamine our approaches to water resources planning and management. Water resource systems need to be able to satisfy the changing demands placed on them, now and on into the future, without system degradation. In order to create these sustainable systems, a more holistic and integrated life-cycle approach to water resources planning, development, and management must take place. Such an approach should lead to plans, facilities, and policies that will be physically, economically, environmentally, ecologically, and socially acceptable and beneficial by current as well as future generations. This document examines many of the major issues and challenges raised by the concept of sustainability applied to water resource system design and management. Various suggested guidelines are reviewed including the extent to which they have been applied in the development and management of water resource systems. Some approaches for measuring and modeling sustainability are outlined, and ways are illustrated in which these measures and models might be used when evaluating designs and operating policies. While this manual focuses on the contributions scientists, engineers, economists, and planners can make, it recognizes that the public stakeholders and their political representatives and institutions must also contribute to efficient and sustainable water management.

Subject Headings: Water resources | Water management | Sustainable development | Resource management | Systems management | Management methods | Social factors

 

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