Planning Program
Water Resources Planning Fact Sheet
| Program Purpose To provide parks with comprehensive planning services/products, covering the full spectrum of water resources, that will assist in their efforts to achieve and maintain water resource integrity. |
IMPORTANCE OF WATER RESOURCES PLANNING IN THE NPS
Proper management of water resources within the NPS is becoming more complex and challenging as threats to this precious resource, both internal and external to park boundaries, increase. Scientists and managers are increasingly called upon to respond to disruptions of water resources that threaten the quality of human life and environmental sustainability.The NPS water resources planning process and its products assist in the development of park-wide management strategies and ensure that park managers and policy makers have adequate and timely information to protect, utilize and enhance water resources.
The preservation, conservation, and protection of water resources
in the NPS is strongly supported in federal legislation, such as the
National Park Service Organic Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking
Water Act, and several executive orders. Additional protection for
water resources is found within state-specific water resource statutes,
and is often found in a park’s enabling legislation. It is the
policy of the NPS to maintain, rehabilitate, and perpetuate the inherent
natural integrity of water resources and water-dependent environments
occurring within national park system units.
WATER RESOURCES PLANNING
The Water Resources Planning Program has been operating essentially the same since 1991 with the development of Water Resource Issues Overviews, Water Resources Scoping Reports and Water Resources Management Plans for units across the national park system. While this program has been successful – over 65 planning products covering over 30 million acres of the national park system – recent changes in NPS general planning (2004 Park Planning Program Standards) and resource planning (draft Director’s Order 2.1: Resource Stewardship Planning) necessitate a programmatic revision of the Water Resources Planning Program to assure that its products support the new NPS planning standards and objectives.
The 2004 Park Planning Program Standards provide a logical flow established through several levels of planning that become increasingly detailed and complementary by agreeing first on why a park was established and what resource conditions should exist, and then increasingly focused on how those conditions should be maintained or achieved. Within this framework, planning and decision making are accomplished through six discrete kinds of planning, resulting in six planning-related documents, with new water resource planning products (Water Resources Foundation Reports and Water Resource Stewardship Reports) supporting specific elements of this framework.
The Water Resource Information and Issues Overview supports needs outside of the six planning levels, with a flexible design that can address a park’s unique water resource issues using available water resource information.
For information on additional services and products, see the Water Resources Planning Fact Sheet.
“When you drink the water, remember the spring”