Links of Interest

These links and downloads have been provided by Michael Campana, Director of the IWW. Many of the links have also been posted to The Oregon Water List, an email distribution list operated by the IWW.

• The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has issued a report entitled “A Strategy for Federal Science and Technology to Support Water Availability and Quality in the United States.” (posted 9/12/07) - The report was produced by the Subcommittee on Water Availability and Quality of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Bob Hirsch of the USGS is co-chair of this Subcommittee. According to OSTP Director John Margurger’s letter of introduction: “the Subcommittee was charged with: (1) identifying science and technology needs to address the growing issues related to fresh water supplies, (2) developing a coordinated, multi-year plan to improve research to understand the processes that control water availability and quality, and (3) enhancing the collection and availability of the data needed to ensure an adequate water supply for the Nation’s future.” The report “provides an overview of the set of challenges that face us in our pursuit of adequate fresh water supplies, lays out the research priorities associated with those challenges, and provides recommendations for federal science strategy to address this important issue.”

• http://worldwidescience.org/ (posted 9/5/07) - This is a global science gateway connecting to national and international scientific databases. I'm told you can simultaneously search 19 international science portals. The U.S. Department of Energy and the British Library, along with 8 other participating countries very recently opened this online global gateway to science information.

• Links to Global Warming Reports (posted 4/9/07):
  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Chapter outlines of the entire report on Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Summary for Policymakers (23 pages)
  • Also good articles: NY Times; USA Today; Christian Science Monitor

• Thought I would mention some recent readings on the land use - water use disconnect (posted 3/26/07):

  • Paul Wichlacz of INL passed me this article by Sarah B. Van de Wetering: http://www.headwatersnews.org/perspective.html In it, Sarah (who, as Sarah Bates, co-authored Overtapped Oasis: Reform or Revolution for Western Water with the late Marc Reisner), discusses the "governance gap", among other things, and also introduces her recent report ( c. 15 pages) from the University of Montana's Public Policy Research Institute, Bridging the Governance Gap: Strategies to Integrate Water and Land Use Planning, which you can download here: http://umtpri.org/media/Public_Policy_Water_Land_Report.pdf

  • Impact, the excellent "theme" publication of the American Water Resources Association, devoted its November 2005 issue to "Water as a Growth Tool". Michelle Henrie guest-edited the issue. Feature articles and brief synopses can de downloaded here (you must be an AWRA member to read the entire issue online)

  • From another Impact article: A 1999 Wisconsin law requires that land-use decisions be based upon a comprehensive plan. At the following WWW site you can read about community ground water planning and implementation and download five reports: http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/landcenter/groundwater/

• Link to Michael Campana's water blog called WaterWired. (Posted 1/07)

• Resources for the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food - CPWF is an international, multi-institutional research initiative with a strong emphasis on north-south and south-south partnerships. The initiative brings together research scientists, development specialists, and river basin communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America to create and disseminate international public goods (IPGs) that improve the productivity of water in river basins in ways that are pro-poor, gender equitable and environmentally sustainable. Marcia Macomber visited and gave a slide show introduction to CPWF (PDF, 2.6Mb). You can also view CPWF's overview brochure (PDF, 4.3Mb), and their flyer about capacity building (PDF, 556k; posted 12/20/06).

• National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program Fact Sheet (2006-3101), Data Delivery and Mapping Over the Web -National Water-Quality Assessment Data Warehouse. NAWQA's Data Warehouse integrates data (more than 11 million records) on water quality, ecology, and hydrology across the Nation, providing one of the largest nationally consistent on-line collections of water-quality data and associated information that is available. (Posted 12/06)

• The Fall 2006 issue of Oregon’s Agricultural Progress is devoted to “Water in Oregon”. Articles on the Oregon coast, Willamette Basin, Klamath Basin, Columbia Basin, Eastern basins, Climate change, Cascades, population growth, etc. (Posted 12/06)

• Rick Bastasch’s revision to his “Waters of Oregon” (1998) was published on 12/15/2006 by OSU Press.(Posted 12/06)

• The United Nations 2006 Human Development Report - Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis. (Posted 11/06)