K-State consortium identifies, evaluates water management strategies

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Source: David R. Steward, 785-532-1585, steward@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Keener A. Tippin II, 785-532-6415

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

K-STATE CONSORTIUM IDENTIFIES, EVALUATES WATER MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

MANHATTAN -- It's one of the four basic elements -- a foundation for life. In some circles it could be considered an equivalent to money -- liquid gold.

"It" is water. As one of the world's most precious natural resources, management of water resource systems can influence the economic, social and environmental well-being of communities, regions, nations and the world.

A group of Kansas State University researchers is currently looking to develop ways to understand water resources from an interdisciplinary perspective. The Consortium for Global Research on Water-Based Economies is comprised of a multidisciplinary team of researchers from 18 various disciplines across six colleges at K-State. They work together with stakeholders, agencies and policy makers of water resources to further scientific understanding of water resource systems for the purpose of making better management and policy decisions.

According to David Steward, a K-State associate professor of civil engineering, the consortium is a collaborative organization dedicated to helping people understand and manage the relationships between water resources and human consumption for agricultural production and livelihood.

In addition to Steward, members of the consortium's multidisciplinary team of researchers include Eric Bernard, associate professor of landscape architecture, who will focus on landscape modeling and geographic information systems; Laszlo Kulcsar, assistant professor of sociology, sociology; Charles Oviatt, professor of geology, geology; Jeff Peterson, associate professor of agricultural economics, economic modeling; and Steve Welch professor of agronomy, plant modeling and bioinformatics. Steward will focus on groundwater modeling and data model.

"We've been working together for about the last five years," Steward said. "We're developing ways of understanding the water resources system from a more holistic standpoint. The kind of driving forces behind us are the changes in the Ogallala Aquifer water reservoir in western Kansas and trying to provide some of the scientific support that is required for the stake holders and policy makers to be able to plan for the future."

According to Steward, the consortium has developed modeling tools that can be integrated into groundwater economics right now.

"This is really the first time that this has been done in a vector GIS-type of framework," he said. "We will lead the nation in that."

Willem de Lange, who is on sabbatical at K-State from the Netherlands Institute of Inland Water Management, is working specifically with the consortium to help researchers understand the approaches utilized in the European Union toward management of water resources. According to Steward, de Lange has been the primary representative from the Netherlands as the head of the Harmoni Project, which involves 30 nations in the EU. Part of the project's work over the past five years involved rewriting policy in Europe to have consistent water laws across the nation.

"We're also sharing with him the interdisciplinary approaches that we will be taking across the spectrum of disciplines in water resources and try to invest that into the program they have in the EU," Steward said. "We're really at a place where we are just beginning to understand the relationships of the various disciplines across water."