Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management

Over the past 50 years, planning procedures and analytical methods for evaluating social and environmental effects have played an increasingly important role in federal water planning. Yet the impact of these procedures on decision making has been less than what their proponents hope for. Among the reasons for this are the inability of many methods to provide the information most needed by decision makers and insufficient education of potential users. A recent Engineering Foundation conference addressed social and environmental goals in water management. This paper summarizes conclusions reached there regarding the theory, practice, and needs of evaluation procedures. One conclusion is that recent changes in federal water planning guidelines are but a pragmatic adaptation to the way planning actually takes place and that multiobjective methods will continue to play a role. A recommendation is that these planning procedures be adapted to the new federal cost‐sharing rules and for use in conflict management.

The basic shift in intergovernmental relationships that has occurred since 1975 has important implications for the achievement of social and environmental goals that guide the management of water resources. These changes, primarily in financial responsibilities, have both positive and negative effects. They will tend to enhance the economic efficiency of water projects, and those projects will be more consistent with the benefit principle of financial equity. On the negative side, the new arrangements provide less opportunity to revitalize economically depressed regions and to extend services to the urban poor. Evidence suggests that economic development tends to dominate environmental quality objectives under the more decentralized relationships. Also, rational‐analytic methods are less likely to be used as the basis for decisions, and the declining federal presence has important implications for the funding of water resources research.

Engineers, scientists, and even some social scientists prefer to look at water resources planning and management as primarily analytical. However, more and more of the water professionals' analytical work depends on peopleoriented techniques either to relate their activities to outside interests or to build better internal team relationships. Frequently, the major problems that engineers and scientists face are not technical. They are problems of reaching agreement on facts, alternatives, or solutions. Public involvement and conflict management techniques are keys to servicing such needs. After briefly describing public involvement and conflict management techniques, seven observations on why incorporating social and environmental objectives into water resources planning and management require these process, techniques are presented.

Education is viewed from the perspective of its role in providing understanding to guide action on complex water issues involving engineering and social and environmental considerations. A case study is presented on an effort by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers to promote education in water matters in public school curricula. Public school water education helps future generations better understand the complexity of water issues. The intent is that school children will carry the important message home to their parents. Regarding university programs, it is not suggested that engineers should become social and environmental specialists. No single specialist can handle all water issues. Instead, the issues should be presented in a broad manner so that the various ramifications are appreciated. Communication among the different groups must be fostered, and we must better appreciate the views of others.

Social and environmental goals and objectives are continually changing and are often difficult to quantify. Furthermore, they encompass both technologic and social dimensions, the latter being the most troublesome. The real challenge is that of finding the key to unlock the constraining influences of the myriad of institutions and social customs that must be reckoned with in attempting to efficiently manage this nation's water resources. A management mole that fits today's, not yesterday's, problems is needed. And while there have been some positive signs of progress along these lines, much remains to be done. To accomplish what is needed will require that we exercise our imaginative and innovative talents to the limit and that we break loose from historical constraints, whatever their form, and explore solutions in their actual context. The challenge is to exert technical expertise in a manner compatible with, yet constrained by, the broad and ever‐changing inclinations of society. No other approach can be expected to yield substantial gains.

Water quality studies were conducted at Springhill subdivision in suburban Lake Worth, Florida, for the purpose of assessing the nutrient removal efficiency of a combination grassed swale/wet detention storm water management system. Routine baseline water quality data were collected on a biweekly basis during the period June 1985 through January 1986. Six discrete storm events were monitored for water quality and quantity trends during this period. Nutrient mass loading calculations for four of the six events indicate surface water treatment efficiency estimations for total suspended solids (0%), total phosphorus (64%), orthophosphorus (98%), nitrite + nitrate nitrogen (98%), and total Kjeldahl nitrogen (77%). These findings were collated with previous study results appearing in the literature. Comparisons indicate that Springhill nutrient removal efficiencies exceeded previous regional and national study findings.

Water demand in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has increased from 1,750 million cubic meters (${\mathrm{Mm}}^3$) in 1975 to more than $9\text{,}600{\mathrm{Mm}}^3$ in 1985, a five‐fold increase in ten years. At the same time increase on the supply side through water recycling and seawater desalination has been from around $18{\mathrm{Mm}}^3$ to $605{\mathrm{Mm}}^3$ during the same period. The development of these additional water supplies have been, however, far short of the increase in water demand, with groundwater making up the difference. This paper examines the above problem from the viewpoint of supply‐demand balance. First, the paper assesses the surface and groundwater resources of the Kingdom, and the present as well as the future conditions of sea water desalination and water cycling. The water demands of the various use sectors are given followed by projections of future water demands. The third phase compares the water supply‐demand situation under present and future conditions. From this comparison it was evident that unless there is a change in the current water use practices, groundwater, the major water resource of the Kingdom, will be mined in few decades and the extent that its usefulness may be severely diminished as a resource. When this develops, a severe water crisis will occur. The crisis can be reduced in severity, or averted, by taking the needed steps to bring into balance the annual water use with annual water supply.

Nassau County, New York, has developed a computerized data‐handling system to support a ground water management program. This case history describes the design process used for the data system, as well as the place and function of computerized data‐handling systems in an overall resource management program. It includes a general overview of the finished system. Our experience indicates that it is difficult to design a data system for groundwater management in the absence of an explicit management program. The system has been implemented using only personal computers. The natural, hydrologic cycle provided the framework for developing the data base structure. The entire system includes data storage and retrieval, statistical analysis and graphical output capabilities, groundwater flow modeling, computer aided drafting, and word processing.

The expected annual damge is the most frequently used index of the impact of flooding at a site. However, estimates of expected annual damages are very uncertain as a result of uncertainties in both the estimation of the flood frequency relationship from limited data and the relationships between magnitude and damage. Computer simulation experiments using synthetic flood peak data and fixed magnitude‐damage functions have shown that the sampling distribution of estimates of expected annual damages is highly skewed to a degree depending on the form of the damage function, and most importantly, that bias in the estimates is most closely related to error in the estimated probability at which damage begins. The use of expected probability leads to a very significant increase in bias in the estimation of expected annual damages.

A hydraulic streamflow routing method was developed using the continuity equation and the control volume form of the energy equation. The required input data consists of a geometric description of the cross‐section, Manning roughness coefficients, channel slope, reach length and inflow hydrograph. The routing procedure was compared with dynamic wave and hydrologic routing methods. For these comparisons, two prismatic channels with different cross‐sectional shapes were analyzed using varying inflow hydrographs and channel slopes. This analysis included both subcritical and supercritical flow. Further analysis of the routing technique was performed by applying the routing procedure to natural streams. The two streams modeled contained irregular cross‐sections with variations in geometrical shape, slope and discharge. Gaged data provided upstream and downstream discharge hydrographs. The developed streamflow routing technique was demonstrated to perform well. The model can be applied in most situations common to open channel flow. The model does not have convergence problems due to irregular cross sections.