2.2: Freshwater
Improved freshwater resource management Other Information:
Managing freshwater quantity and quality is one of the most significant challenges the U.S. must address in the 21st century.
Demands for water continue to escalate, driven by agricultural, energy, commercial, and residential usage, particularly in
urban areas. Sustained growth requires viable long-term municipal water supplies and, by extension, sophisticated predictions
and management practices. The Nation's water resource managers need new and better integrated information to manage limited
or excessive water supplies more proactively and effectively in a changing and uncertain environment. Working with core partners—the
USGS and the USACE—NOAA will integrate and extend its water prediction capabilities to provide information and forecasts for
a full suite of water services. NOAA will improve its outreach to resource managers to improve their understanding and application
of models and forecasts as they make decisions and manage risk. Interrelated to NOAA's objective to improve coastal water
quality in the Resilient Coastal Communities and Economies goal, this objective applies to all coastal and inland waterways
and addresses challenges associated with too much, not enough, or poor quality water. To achieve this objective, NOAA and
its partners will enhance the integration and utility of water services by developing integrated decision-support tools for
water resource managers based on high resolution summit-to-sea data and information. NOAA will expand water services by providing
forecasts for such parameters as water quality, flow, temperature, dissolved oxygen content, and soil moisture conditions
for inland and coastal watersheds. Improved and expanded water services will require new technologies to increase information
access and dissemination, as well as research and development to advance understanding of precipitation, temperature, evaporation
and other hydrologic processes in an Earth system framework. NOAA will improve modeling and prediction capabilities by implementing
high-resolution hydrologic and hydraulic models, integrating long-range weather and water forecasting, and improving the confidence
of hydrologic forecasts. Critical to NOAA's success will be the ability to expand river, surface, and remote observations,
and leverage the observations of partners. Over the next five years, evidence of progress toward this objective will include:
* Avoidance of economic loss and property damage from flooding as a result of impact-based decision support; * More efficient
and effective management of municipal water supplies using integrated water forecasts; and * Economic benefits from increased
efficiencies in water usage in the transportation, hydropower, and agriculture sectors.
Indicator(s):
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