Water Resource Management: Regional Planning

Abstract

"An analysis of American experience in water resource management and regional planning afford a useful opportunity to examine the development of American institutions in an important segment of American society. The ways that resources are exploited for human purposes is an important key to an understanding of institutional arrangements and public policies in any society. New institutional arrangements and accommodations are initiated as new problems and opportunities arise in the development of water resource potentials. At the same time, many of the earlier institutional arrangements maintain their continuity of operation within the changing social scene.

"This analysis will first turn to a consideration of patterns of local development undertaken by individual proprietors, private agencies, and by local government agencies. These developments largely involved single- purpose projects concerned with the consumptive use of water for on-the-land developments. The fullest development of water resource management by local agencies can be illustrated by reference to the experience of the Southern California metropolitan region. Efforts to develop regional solutions in some of the large inter-state watershed basins will then be explored. Specific references will be made to experience in the Tennessee valley and in the Columbia basin."