Integrated Water Management

Integrated Water Management:

For Surfrider “Integrated Water Management”means coordinating all aspects of freshwater management to maintain safe andsustainable communities while restoring and protecting our coast and ocean. Communities need tofind a way to manage their water needs, so that they can meet demand withoutharming ecosys­tems, increasing ocean pollution, and wasting energy. The goodnews is that there are a number of real, relevant and viable solu­tions thatcan not only solve our fresh water problems, but also improve and restore thehealth of our coasts. These solutions are all based on a simple and time-provenstrategy: reduce, reuse and recycle.

Integrated Water Management is the practice of looking atwater management from a holistic perspective. Traditionally, water supply,wastewater, and storm water are all managed by separate agencies ordepartments. When in reality, all water is WATER. Integrated water managementrequires interagency coordination between the these traditionally separatesilos, and the pursuit of multiple benefit solutions such as Ocean FriendlyGardens and Indirect Potable Reuse. When agencies begin to coordinate through IntegratedWater Management they can begin to solve multiple problems instead of inadvertentlycreating a new problem to solve another. For instance, traditional floodcontrol management whisks water off of the land as fast as possible, treatingwater like a nuisance, which then creates a problem for water supply.

For Surfrider’s vision for water management check out theshort film Cycle of Insanity.