Sustainable Statewide Water Resources Management in Texas

Key integrated components of the Texas sustainable water management enterprise include a regional and statewide planning process, water rights permit system and other water allocation mechanisms, process for establishing environmental flow standards, and water availability modeling system. These statewide endeavors mandated by the Legislature are implemented by a water management community comprised of state, local, and federal agencies, private industry, stakeholders, interests groups, consulting engineering firms, and university researchers. Texas is a large state with a rapidly growing population, declining groundwater supplies, intensifying demands on limited surface water resources, extreme hydrologic variability including severe droughts, and very diverse climate, geography, economic development, and water management practices. The Texas experience is illustrative of fundamental concepts and issues involved in state-level efforts to achieve sustainable water management. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.