NSF Award
2437086
A significant portion of the world’s population does not have access to safe sanitation facilities, and thirty percent do not have safe drinking water. Drinking water and surface water pollution remain key environmental concerns among the public. These concerns exist despite considerable public and private investment. In addition to traditional pollution threats, newer concerns about microplastics and “forever chemicals” such as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have emerged. At the same time, water quantity crises ranging from too much to too little are emerging as some of the most vital resource issues of the 21st century challenging human health and food security. This project will investigate how to characterize and quantify the full range of economic costs and benefits, effectiveness, and equity of water resource policies. This foundation will inform how to guide investments in infrastructure to protect against flooding, minimize impairments of waterways and contamination of drinking water supplies, address the inequitable distribution of clean water, and encourage the development and deployment of clean water technologies.<br/><br/>This project outlines plans to develop a National Center for Water Policy (NCWP). A series of workshops are convened with a multidisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners to produce (1) a detailed plan for a National Center for Water Policy; (2) a team-authored policy paper that synthesizes expert opinion on the water resource issues, challenges, and research needs in the United States; and (3) a synthesis of academic and policy discussions related to the current state of water policy in the United States. This project develops a convergent approach to understanding the full impact of the nation’s most pressing water quality and quantity challenges on human wellbeing, synthesizes findings from harmonized research to better understand effective and equitable policy solutions, and builds capacity for knowledge transfer and policy outreach to facilitate the use of leading-edge research in policy solutions. This project investigates the potential for a NCWP to coordinate and conduct research on the broader water quality and quantity challenges.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
