State Approaches to Watershed Management: Transferring Lessons between the Northeast and Southwest
Publication: Watershed Management and Operations Management 2000
Abstract
Managing at the watershed-scale has become an increasingly popular and innovative approach to water resources management. As watershed based approaches to managing water resources are being adopted throughout the United States, knowledge is accumulating rapidly in different regions about what works and what does not. While there is considerable enthusiasm for spreading (and replicating) these "lessons learned" nationally there is also the recognition that institutional arrangements for watershed management should reflect the unique physical and social characteristics of each region. These observations raise the following questions: To what extent (and under what circumstances) can the knowledge gained in one region be constructively applied elsewhere, and what opportunities and risks are associated with the transfer of "lessons" among regions? These are deceptively difficult and salient questions only recently receiving serious attention in the context of watershed management. In this paper, we choose to examine a small component of this issue by considering watershed management approaches in the disparate states of Massachusetts and Arizona. These are regions with very different biogeophysical qualities, legal and administrative regimes, major water uses and issues, and community governance traditions. In short, they appear to have little in common. In practice, however, state watershed management plans in the two states are quite similar. Understanding the reasons behind this outcome is useful in explaining the limits of the transferability of lessons.
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© 2000 American Society of Civil Engineering.
History
Published online: Apr 26, 2012
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Business management
- Freight transportation
- Infrastructure
- Innovation
- Logistics
- Management methods
- Practice and Profession
- Resource management
- River engineering
- River systems
- Social factors
- Transportation engineering
- Urban and regional development
- Water and water resources
- Water management
- Water policy
- Water resources
- Watersheds
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