Planning

The Water Resources Division (WRD) Planning Program provides parks with comprehensive planning services/products, covering the full spectrum of water resources that will assist in their efforts to achieve and maintain water resource integrity.

Water is a particularly important and sensitive ecosystem component, and it plays a central role in the social, economic, environmental, and political mosaic of units of the national park system. Its physical availability and quality are critical determinants of a park's overall natural resource condition. Because of the important role of water in maintaining resource condition, it is the policy of the NPS to maintain, rehabilitate, and perpetuate the inherent natural integrity of water resources and water-dependent environments occurring within the national park system.

The management of the national park system is directed by federal law, NPS policy, and park planning, in that order. Planning is a decision-making process that helps managers determine the best way to comply with law and policy in those instances where management discretion is allowed, and the best way to address the many competing interests in parks that are not directly addressed by law or policy.

Presently overall park planning is guided by the Park Planning Program Standards issued in 2004 (Figure 1). These standards provide a logical flow established through several levels of planning that become increasingly detailed and complementary by agreeing first on why a park was established and what resource conditions should exist and then increasingly focused on how those conditions should be maintained or achieved.

The NPS Water Resources Planning Program has reacted to these planning standards by offering a new generation of planning products and support to parks designed to integrate into specific elements of the park planning framework (Figure 1).

Importance of Water Resources Planning in the NPS

Proper management of water resources within the NPS is becoming more complex and challenging as threats to this precious resource, both internal and external to park boundaries, increase. Scientists and managers are increasingly called upon to respond to disruptions of water resources that threaten the quality of human life and environmental sustainability. The NPS water resources planning process and its products assist in the development of park-wide management strategies and ensure that park managers and policy makers have adequate and timely information to protect, utilize and enhance water resources.

The preservation, conservation, and protection of water resources in the NPS is strongly supported in federal legislation, such as the National Park Service Organic Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and several executive orders. Additional protection for water resources is found within state-specific water resource statutes, and is often found in a park's enabling legislation. It is the policy of the NPS to maintain, rehabilitate, and perpetuate the inherent natural integrity of water resources and water-dependent environments occurring within national park system units.