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A Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable Meeting was held September 13-14, 2004 at the Landmark Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. The meeting was held to encourage participation from people in the Upper Midwest. The goal was to focus on the criteria and indicator categories that had been worked on at previous meetings and "populate" those categories with indicators from the large list of candidate indicators drawn from many sources including other multi-stakeholder groups working with water. Significant progress was made and lists of categories and indicators for the ecological, economic and social systems are being edited by volunteer subcommittees.
The Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable held a one-day meeting on June 4, 2004, hosted by the Wilderness Society in Washington, DC. The meeting continued work on the framework for developing water indicators, and focused on how best to describe the necessary Ecosystem, Social, and Economic elements. Participants included representatives of government, industry, public interest groups, and professional associations.
The Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable held a regional meeting, hosted by the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, on March 2-3, 2004. This meeting involved participants who explained the progress to date in developing a national approach to water resources Criteria and Indicators, as well as those who spoke about the specific water problems of this region. A keynote speaker who placed these in a national and international setting was Peter H. Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute of Oakland, California. At this meeting the current results of the conceptual model were presented, including Criteria for Ecosystems, Social characteristics, and Economics, as well as categories within each criterion, such as water quality. Research in sustainable water resources was also covered. Further work on developing concepts of sustainable water resources and the research needed will be carried out at future meetings.
The Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable held a meeting at the Department of the Interior in Washington, DC, on Nov. 13-14, 2003. This meeting was the third two-day gathering held by SWRR. Over the course of those meetings the participants heard and interacted with senior policy makers in Federal Agencies such as the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, the Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, and officials of the Department of Agriculture. Corporations such as Southern Company, Georgia Pacific, Dow Chemical, Minnesota Power, and ALCOA have participated, as have States, localities and interstate councils related to water and a variety of non-government organizations including the Ecological Society of America, Western Pennsylvania Watershed Program and the Electric Power Research Institute.
The Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable presented its activities to date at the annual meeting of the Advisory Committee on Water Information, Sept. 9-10, 2003. The revised Terms of Reference were accepted by the Committee with some edits. The Roundtable has held two meetings to date, with more planned for 2003 and 2004. Research is underway in the form of papers at professional meetings, and a special issue of the journal Water Resources Update. A conceptual model is being developed, and reviews are being done of the water indicators of other roundtables, in the report of the Heinz Center, and those done by EPA and USGS. Outreach to professional organization meetings will continue to disseminate results and to elicit ideas from new participants.
The Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable held a meeting at USGS in Reston, Virginia on June 19-20, 2003. The attendance of about 50 people included representatives of federal and state government, local government associations, professional associations, industry, environmental groups, and academia. The nature of water resources sustainability was examined during the keynote panel from the differing perspectives of industry, the states, academia, and watershed associations. A proposed conceptual framework describing water sustainability was presented by a roundtable study group. The criteria and water indicators being used by seven existing projects were described in detail, to offer a possible starting point for future work in developing Water Roundtable indicators. Breakout groups carried out brainstorming sessions that addressed each session as it was held, and made a start on how to define water sustainability, and what goals should be formulated to achieve water sustainability. Future actions for the Water Roundtable were developed at the close of the meeting, and these included additional joint efforts, publication of results, enlisting additional sources of support, outreach to other stakeholders, and seeking support for further research.
The inaugural meeting of the Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable was held December 10 and 11, 2002 near the WEF headquarters in Alexandria, VA. Almost 60 people participated, representing many Federal Agencies involved in water, some state and state organizations, and some from the corporate sector and environmental organizations. The group developed a clear consensus that decision-making from the national level to the individual level would be well supported by better information on water in the form of indicators that summarize the information and make it readily understandable to the layman. We also discussed research on water information and issues.
Several Federal Agencies expressed enthusiasm for participation and support of the work as did the others present. This Roundtable is the fourth such multi-stakeholder resource roundtable to be established, the others being (Forests, Rangelands, and Minerals and Energy) . Each Roundtable designs criteria for indicators and, over a period of time, indicators themselves that participants agreed reflect the important aspects and trends of the resource. With respect to water, we expect this work will focus on a wide range of supply, usage and quality topics.
The Advisory Committee on Water Information endorsed the Terms of Reference at the meeting of April 2-3, 2002. It was announced that a meeting of the Roundtable is planned for late in 2002. Resources to hold this meeting are being sought.
The USGS agreed to provide the web pages for the Roundtable, and placed them on-line in February 2002. The Roundtable now has a draft Terms of Reference, which is intended for presentation and review at the April 2002 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Water Information. This will provide the starting point for subsequent dialogue within the Roundtable.
During January 2002 e-mail was distributed to encourage
participation in the work of the Roundtable by those from many
different agencies and organizations. One important action is the
compilation of indicators that show the status and trends of
statistics that describe various aspects of water resources. Such
indicators can provide facts that show what is happening in water
resources, and may assist those concerned with determining choices for
alternative policies for the future. Work is now underway to compile
indicator data from available sources. Recipients were asked to
consider the following questions, and to send their ideas about
possible answers:
What water resources indicators are most helpful in defining sustainability and why?
From what organizations can statistics about the status and trends be obtained for these indicators?
If new data should be collected for these indicators, what organizations should do it and why?
A planning meeting was held on November 27, 2001 at the Water Environment Federation, which included Federal and Non-governmental representatives. The Water Environment Federation will be the convener of the first Roundtable meeting, when sufficient support is identified. Actions from this meeting included: (1) Make contact with agencies and organizations that might have an interest in providing support for the Roundtable; (2) Start looking for organizations that might provide facilitation services for the first Roundtable meeting, and cost them out; (3) Look for an organization that would be able to provide a web site for the Roundtable.
In October 2001 the Chief of the Forest Service sent a letter of support for the Roundtable, and named points of contact for this effort within the Forest Service.
A presentation was made to the May 2001 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Water Information. The Roundtable was accepted as an ad hoc action with permission to begin organizing. Organizations expressing interest included the American Water Works Association, Ecological Society of America, Electric Power Research Institute, and Universities' Council on Water Resources.
The Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable originated at the March 2001 meeting of the Interagency Working Group on Sustainable Development Indicators. Other roundtables now existing include those on forests, rangelands, and for minerals. These roundtables focus, in part, on developing criteria and indicators to help report status and trends for more effective decision making. The meeting proposed that the water roundtable should follow an approach similar to the other roundtables.