A national strategy is needed to prevent the coming water war: the Mississippi River watershed shows us why
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Authors
Wendt, Timothy J.
Subjects
Adaptive Management
Complexity
Fracking
Hydraulic Fracturing
Integrated Water Resources Management
Marine Planning
Mississippi River
River Basin
Water
Watershed
Complexity
Fracking
Hydraulic Fracturing
Integrated Water Resources Management
Marine Planning
Mississippi River
River Basin
Water
Watershed
Advisors
Nieto-Gomez, Rodrigo
Date of Issue
2014-03
Date
Mar-14
Publisher
Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
The Mississippi River watershed is currently managed as six separate basins including the Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Arkansas, and Upper and Lower Mississippi Rivers. This research pulls together several system components'navigation, flood control, environmental, municipal and industrial uses, and geopolitical concerns'and proposes treating the entire watershed as a system. The current problem is that actions taken in one basin often have consequences in another. This results in inefficient oversight, environmental harm, and adds to the cost of watershed management. These problems stem from the lack of a national water strategy. This thesis proposes a national water strategy and the formation of a regional planning body (RPB), with the National Ocean Policy Implementation Plan as a guide, to coordinate watershed planning. The watershed RPB would also coordinate inter-basin activities with the Great Lakes and Gulf of Mexico RPB's. Implementing the recommendations presented in this thesis is made difficult by the complexity of the watershed's ecosystem, the interconnectedness of the system components, the current legal framework for water rights, the myriad congressional oversight committees, numerous non-government organizations, and the many state, tribal, and local jurisdictions with a stake in the outcome.
Type
Thesis
Description
Series/Report No
Department
National Security Affairs
Organization
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.