December 15, 2010

Roadmap for Sustainable Water Resources:
New Article by Peter Gleick Addresses Challenges and Strategies

The water systems we have built are unsustainable without fundamental change, according to Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute and one of the world’s leading experts on water. His article “Roadmap for Sustainable Water Resources in Southwestern North America” is one of eight featured in the December 14 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a special feature focusing on climate change and water in southwestern North America.

“The resource issue that is going to be most difficult to address in the western United States is not land, or energy, or mining, or climate, but water, which ties each of these other resource challenges together,” wrote Gleick. He provides four key strategies for water managers, planners, and utilities to address the water problems facing the southwestern United States or any region of the world facing water challenges:

1. rethink assumptions and definitions about water supply;
2. work to reduce water demand through conservation and efficiency programs;
3. develop improved systems for managing water;
4. integrate climate change into all water system decisions.

Download the article (PDF)