Rev. Winter, 2007
Mission
The Urban Water Research Center's (UWRC) mission is to advance the understanding of the distinct characteristics and challenges of the urban water environment, in order to assist people and institutions in their efforts to promote health, enhance the efficient use of water resources, and protect environmental values.
Introduction
The study of urban water resources is inherently interdisciplinary, which is the strength of the Urban Water Research Center. The Center is a partnership between a variety of UC Irvine departments, including Civil and Environmental Engineering; Earth System Sciences; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Economics; Occupational and Environmental Medicine; Planning, Policy, and Design; and Public Health. The UWRC embodies the philosophy that water quality issues are multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary, and must be examined using combined water science, engineering, and policy methodologies.
The UWRC provides an excellent resource for water agencies in Southern California as well as the Southwestern United States. The Center takes a comprehensive approach to water quality and quantity in the context of the diverse populations of an urban environment. This look at water policy serves utilities as well as policy makers by providing resources for long-term planning and for educating the broader community.
New Challenges
No state in the union has had more serious water problems than California. Similarly, no other state has been as innovative in designing both engineering and institutional responses to those problems. Nevertheless, the problems are becoming more acute. It is estimated that California's population will reach 65 million by 2025, with the majority of this increase occurring in Southern California. Simultaneously, sources of plentiful, cheap, high quality water are diminishing and becoming less reliable.
- The State Water Project and the Metropolitan Water District, for different reasons, are under strong pressures to cut back on deliveries to urban areas
- Evidence of water contamination on California beaches raises economic and health concerns
- Pressures to convert water to a market commodity promise higher water costs and institutional conflict
- Water quality standards and regulations governing water supply sources have grown more stringent and are certain to continue to do so, jeopardizing the usefulness of some sources and raising the costs of treatment for others.
- Urban areas in Southern California lack a coherent and effective political voice on behalf of Southern California's urban communities and residents.
Value of Center Research
Contemporary water problems refuse to fit into the specific missions under which most utilities and government agencies were established. Increasingly, therefore, effective action has required collaboration and partnerships. It is necessary to think outside the conventional frameworks. Utilities and public agencies have already begun to share information and fund mutually beneficial research. To move to the next level of collaboration necessary to resolve serious emerging problems a sense of shared purpose is required. The vision of the Urban Water Research Center at UCI is to serve as an unbiased forum and source of broad objective information on water issues affecting urban areas, in Southern California and beyond.
New Approaches
Meeting emerging problems will require institutional as well as technical know-how. The large-scale water-transfer projects of previous eras are no longer possible. New water sources such as recycling of waste water, seawater conversion, conservation and reclamation of degraded water sources will require levels of cooperation and public understanding previously unnecessary. Good collaborative research where the social science is equal in strength to engineering and technology is mandatory. Further, researchers must work side-by-side with the utilities and agencies that know best the realistic possibilities and limits of action.
