Water Workshop

The goal of the workshop was to provide a forum on the science required to sustainably manage the nation's water resources. A diverse but limited cross-section of the Federal, academic, and water provider and user communities convened to identify challenges, knowledge gaps, and research needs (with a time horizon of up to 15 to 20 years out) that must be addressed, as well as to discuss the most effective means of translating research into sustainable water management. 

The Water Workshop was hosted by the Institute for Sustainability, an AIChE Technological Community, and was  sponsored by NSF, NIST, and IEEE USA and supported by ASCE.

NEW! Presentations from the Water Workshop held August 13, 2009, Cincinnati, Ohio are in agenda below.  Click the agenda item to view slides.

WORKSHOP TENTATIVE AGENDA Thursday, August 13, 2009
8:30AM	Introduction and workshop goals  Speaker: Darlene Schuster, IfS/AIChE
8:50AM	Overview of SWAQ report, with update/questions Speaker: Rochelle Araujo, EPA
9:30AM	Overview of ACWI’s Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable Speaker: Robert Goldstein, EPRI
10:00AM	Break
10:15AM	An academic vision for national water research frontiers Speaker: Jeff Dozier, UCSB
11:00AM	Stakeholder commentaries
	A municipality, Don Outen, Baltimore County
	A corporation, Paul Bowen, Coca-Cola
11:45AM-1:00PM	Lunch provided by workshop through a generous contribution from IEEE Speaker: Russ Lefevre, IEEE
1:00PM	Orientation and goals for breakout session, Darlene Schuster, IfS/AIChE
1:15PM	5 Breakouts (Cafe style)
3:30PM	Report-backs
4:45PM	Wrap-up and path forward
5:00PM	Adjournment

Luncheon Speaker: Russell Lefevre
Russell Lefevre is a Fellow of the IEEE and 2008 President of IEEE-USA.  He has a B.S. and M.S. in Physics from the University of North Dakota and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  During 2001, Dr. Lefevre was an IEEE-USA Congressional Fellow as Science Advisor to Senator Jay Rockefeller.  He participated in the recent ASME Water Management Technology Vision and Roadmap Workshop and is a member of the ASME R&D Committee on Water Issues.  He is the IEEE representative to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Science and Technology Committee and has contributed to the GEOSS Society Benefit Activity on Water.  He has an appointment as Adjunct Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering at the University of North Dakota.

BREAKOUTS:

The breakout groups are “café” style:

• Each registered workshop participant has been assigned to one of the cafe tables (see separate listing).  After the first hour of the breakout session, participants are free to circulate among the cafe tables (the co-leader/co-facilitator pairs are each anchored to their respective cafe table).  

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1."Knowledge Base" Cafe Table

 Co-leaders/co-facilitators: Rick Hooper (CUAHSI) and Geoff Prentice (NSF) 

Charge A: What types of data need to be collected to achieve US national water sustainability in the short and long term beyond current water quantity, water quality, and water withdrawal data?

Strawman Response A: Consumptive water use.

Charge B: What are the technological and social barriers to collecting such data? What is needed to overcome these barriers?

Strawman Response B. Privacy issues on individual choices; need to employ survey techniques to preserve privacy.

Charge C: What is the temporal and spatial resolution required of such measurements?

Strawman Response C:  Annual and at the household/farm/economic unit.

Charge D:  Should a census (e.g., exhaustive enumeration) be done at a small number of locations and/or can a random sample be designed to estimate a larger population? How do the different water resource management structures in the country influence this answer (e.g., humid east, irrigation districts in arid west, water management districts in Florida, etc.)?

Strawman Response D: Both are required. A few different units for a census should be chosen to inform and refine survey design.

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2."Science Agenda" Cafe Table

Co-leaders/co-facilitators: Jeff Dozier (UCSB) and Pat Brezonik (U/ Minnesota-Twin Cities)

Charge:  What are the gaps and needs in the science agenda for U.S. national water sustainability for the short term (up to 10 years), and long term (10 years and beyond)?

Strawman Responses: (1) Evapotranspiration, recharge, and withdrawal are the major sources of uncertainty in closing the water balance. Getting better estimates of these quantities requires a continental-scale program to measure the variables at many more points and coordinate the surface measurements with satellite estimates of leaf area and temperature, soil moisture, and large aquifer volumes, among other variables. (2) Our urban stormwater systems neither prevent stormwater from combining with sewage and sending contaminated water into the environment, nor do they effectively recharge to ground water.

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3."Technology Agenda" Cafe Table 

Co-leaders/co-facilitators: Bob Goldstein (EPRI and SWRR) and Mark Shannon (U. Illinois)

Charge: What are the gaps and needs in the technology research agenda for increasing U.S. national water availability?

"Strawman” Response: Greatly reduced energy use and concentrate residuals for desalination, and no discharge water reuse.

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4."System Level Water Sustainability" Cafe Table

Co-leaders/co-facilitators: Mike O'Neill (USDA) and Bruce Hamilton (NSF)

Charge: What are the gaps and needs for “System Level Water Sustainability” for the nation?

"Strawman" Response: Nationally accepted "criteria and indicators" for water sustainability, and a plan (with means) for how to achieve agreed upon targets for indicator values. 

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5."Improved Coordination" Cafe Table

Co-leaders/co-facilitators: Rochelle Araujo (EPA) and Nick Clesceri (NSF)

Charge: What is the appropriate role of each of the interested parties (federal agencies, states, basin/regional planning authorities, NGOs, municipalities, industry, academia) in coordinating the information and research activities required to develop sustainable management of water resources?  What can be achieved in the near term (1-5 years), and long-term (more than 15 years out)? How can technology and/or institutional agreements facilitate such coordination? What can be learned from international efforts?

"Strawman" Response: Federal agencies take the lead in identifying critical information, information gaps, and host data-sharing platforms accessible to all parties.

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KEY ROLE OF CO-LEADERS/CO-FACILITATORS 

The co-leaders/co-facilitators pairs are charged with constructing the report-backs, which are to be the most compelling statement of gaps and needs that each pair of co-leaders/co-facilitators can pull together, drawing on the input of the visitors to their respective café table.

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WORKSHOP BIBLIOGRAPY WEBSITE

A bibliography for the workshop is posted at:

http://www.aiche.org/IFS/Conferences/Workshops/WaterWorkshop/Publications.aspx 

It is recommended that all participants scan this posting in advance of the workshop.

POST-WORKSHOP DISSEMINATION PLAN