Integrating Societal and Scientific Elements into Sustainable and Effective Water Resource Policy Development

Abstract

Sustainable water policy is predicated on engaged and representative stakeholders acting on sound and continuously evolving science. Just as stakeholder perspectives are numerous and diverse, so are the scientific disciplines or subject areas that define the availability, impact and use of water. There exists a need for scientists, engineers, and policy makers to better understand the inextricable network of feedback loops associated with the implementation of the science of water resources management and the polic y enabling water resources management. In this article, we propose the Water Resources Integrated Science and Policy Research (WRISPR) concept. WRISPR is a framework to engage stakeholders and policy makers in integrated water policy formation using a singular framework underpinned with cutting edge cyberinfrastructure and modeling tools. We find that WRISPR can be successfully applied by developing a demonstrative cyberinfrastructure framework in two distinct regions of the United States. We propose that WRISPR can be scaled to empower science-driven water policy at multiple spatial and temporal ranges.

Development of a Cyberinfrastructure for Assessment of the Lower Rio Grande Valley North and Central Watersheds Characteristics

“…This platform helped in obtaining quality data for an overview of the north and central watersheds' characteristics, where stakeholders from the study area could support the characterization. The website now serves as a cyber-collaboratory platform for engaging stakeholders with an interest in data and information for a certain location [6]. Due to the wide inventory of data, the cyberinfrastructure also supported the acquisition of geospatial data, making the process more efficient which consisted of having all the geospatial data in only one source, REON.…”

“…This platform offers a rapid generation of new relationships between wide inventories of data. Cyberinfrastructure secures data and delivers interpreted information via a sequence of web services and portals in forms that are universally coherent by distinct stakeholders [6]. Further, it serves as the center for a variety of data from distinct sources, such as non-point and point source and watershed delineation characteristics.…”