EXTRACT FROM SUMMARY: Water and related environmental resources have been crucial in the exploration, settlement, and development of the lower Mississippi River and its delta region. From the great prehistoric
upstream riverfront engineering works at Poverty Point, to the mobile shell mound settlers of lower distributaries, human populations have adjusted to and transformed their deltaic environments. The City of New Orleans was settled and developed near the mouth of the Mississippi River as a port and a strategic site for access to the river and the heart of the continent. The Mississippi River system and its coastal aquifers provide natural water supplies for New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and other communities. The region has an abundance and diversity of fisheries that support household and commercial livelihoods.

In addition to valuable water-related resources, the region also is subject to Mississippi River floods in spring and summer, and to Gulf of Mexico hurricanes in late summer and fall. There is a long, fascinating history of human efforts to cope with and reduce the effects of these natural hazards, ranging from pre-European inhabitants seeking areas of higher ground for sites of settlement and transportation routes, to modern-day, massive levees and drainage systems along the lower Mississippi River, other water control structures and spillways, and extensive hurricane protection structures within and across the greater New Orleans metropolitan area.

Given the prominence and persistence of natural hydrologic hazards, many early water-related studies and activities in this region focused on hydrology, hydraulics, and engineering, such as the competing studies of Mississippi River hydrology and engineering by Andrew Humphreys and Charles Ellet in the nineteenth century. Over time, research advanced on related land, water, ecological, and socioeconomic resources—from sediment and settlements to wetlands, biodiversity, and biogeochemistry. There is an extensive research network of universities, agencies, and civil society organizations in the region that have been focusing on these complex water
and environmental processes in the delta.

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was one of the nation’s worst storm-related disasters, and in its wake there were numerous investigations and reports that offered both retrospective analyses and alternatives for better addressing
risks associated with hurricanes. There was an especially strong interest in comparing New Orleans’ coastal protection approach and system to that of the Netherlands. U.S. water experts and decision makers made numerous
visits to the Netherlands to assess approaches that might profitably be shared or adapted back in the United States.

It was in this setting that the Water Institute for the Gulf (Water Institute) was established in 2011 and began its operations in 2012. The Water Institute was established with seed money from the State of Louisiana
and from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. The Water Institute aims to provide the state of Louisiana with a central point of scientific capacity to help the state better build a variety of ecosystem restoration and hurricane
protection projects. It intends to collaborate with scientists and engineers from around the world, and in doing so, to create a center of scientific excellence that will serve communities throughout the Gulf Coast and beyond. For more information on The Water Institute, its activities, and future plans see http://thewaterinstitute.org/.

The following report was authored by the National Research Council Committee on Strategic Research for Integrated Water Resources Management. The committee’s statement of task was divided into three topics: (1) common problems and challenges in lower river and deltaic systems, (2) strategic research for integrated water resources management, and (3) transferring and applying scientific knowledge from the lower Mississippi River to other deltaic regions (the report’s full statement of task is presented in Chapter 1, Box 1-1). The major sections in this Summary track these three areas as follows: the section on Common Problems and Challenges addresses topic 1 above; sections on Strategic Research for Integrated Water and Environmental Management, Science-Policy Analysis, and Research Coordination and Organizational Options address topic 2 above, and the final section on Comparative International Water Research addresses topic 3 above. First, some comments on the nature of this report’s statement of task and its main conclusions are in order. This report’s statement of task requests the NRC committee to offer advice for setting research priorities to support integrated water resources management in lower river and deltaic systems. The report thus has a strong science research program emphasis. Much of the advice herein is based upon the committee’s collective expert judgment, and not necessarily detailed review of specific bodies of science, or testing of hypotheses. Research directions thus are presented in the form of promising alternatives and opportunities open to the Water Institute, as opposed to conclusive or definitive science-based recommendations and organizational imperatives. This report does not identify priorities among these many opportunities, but the final chapter provides comments regarding a process for prioritization.

A central concept in this report’s statement of task—Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)—has various, sometimes contested, meanings in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere that could have a bearing
on this report’s comparative dimensions. Rather than engaging these ongoing and unresolved debates, the report invokes the IWRM concept selectively with respect to specific studies and programs. For the broader purposes of this report, the study topic is rephrased as integrated water and environmental management (without capitalization or acronym).

The Water Institute’s goals to become a credible center for scientific research and advice for the lower Mississippi River, Gulf region, and beyond, will not be realized overnight. Therefore this report offers a range of recommendations that could be implemented over different time scales, ranging from near-term activities, to medium- and longer-term activities and areas of emphasis that would require years to further conceptualize
and implement.