The Use of Models for Water Resources Management, Planning, and Policy

Abstract

The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) of the U.S. Congress investigated the current and potential use of water resource‐related mathematical models. It focused on mathematical modeling as a means of assessing the broader issue of the nation's ability to analyze and plan courses of action to deal with current and long‐range water problems. OTA found that models capable of analyzing many pressing water resource issues are currently available and that these models have significant potential for increasing the accuracy and effectiveness of information available to managers, decisionmakers and scientists. Surveys and workshops conducted by OTA, however, indicate that institutional constraints to modeling—including inadequate Federal support services for model dissemination, training, and technical assistance, and maintenance—have impeded modeling from realizing its full potential. The states, in particular, are hard pressed to fulfill their present responsibilities without an improved capacity to use the best available analytical tools, which they rely on the federal government, in part, to provide. Many major federal agencies, however, lack an integrated plan for developing and supporting models; in the absence of a comprehensive strategy, federal agencies are often unresponsive to both state and federal problem‐solving needs.