Sustainable Water Management: Results of the Army Watershed Study.

Today we face many challenges in protecting water resources.  As a land manager who relies on healthy water supplies to support testing and training lands as well as soldiers and their families, the U.S. Army is establishing methods to assess watershed health.  Recognizing that local supply is dependent on population demands, precipitation and storm frequency, ecosystem protection, executive orders, and local policy; land managers must be cognizant of not only local, but regional and national water demands, supplies, and policy.  Maintaining clean and adequate supplies and achieving conservation targets requires a regional context.

 The Army Environmental Policy Institute is sponsoring work that addresses local water management at a watershed level.  The National Watershed Assessment characterizes the overall “health” of watersheds.  This uses an indicator framework based on 23 water quality and quantity indicators.  The result is a quick and effective tool to identify pressures and thus employ appropriate detailed analyses.  The Regional Water Budget projects supply and demand thirty years into the future.  This allows “what if” analyses to support development of strategies to meet conservation goals.  For example, regions are able to quantify the impacts of particular polices on future water supplies. 

 This poster summarizes the methodologies used by the Army and offers tools for viewers to take back for their own regional water assessment.