ABSTRACT

This chapter elaborates the concept of water management in a way of providing a basis for evaluating the policy and institutional arrangements for water management in England. Although definitive institutional criteria are lacking, it chapter identifies significant characteristics of water management and suggests institutional features favorable to the accomplishment of its goals. Multiple-use capability of a water resource is a fundamental factor in prescribing the nature of the water management job. Ground water introduces some special interdependency considerations. Under intense-use pressures, both hydrologic and economic interdependencies operate to urge an integrated management of surface and ground water. Therefore, as use pressures strain local water resources, efficiency of resource use requires a close integration of management actions relating to each supply source. Water resource development and the construction of distribution and disposal systems are capital intensive operations. Until quite recently, public concern about water management has principally focused upon: quantity, quality, behavior, and availability of water in natural hydrologic units.