AMWA and other members of the Climate Change and Water Resources Workgroup of the Federal Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI) are developing recommendations on key federal actions to improve adaptation of water resources to a changing climate. The effort is in response to the President's Executive Order on Climate Change Preparedness. Specifically, Section 3 of the Order requires the heads of several federal agencies to work with the White House – namely, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Office of Management and Budget – to implement program and policy changes to make “watersheds, natural resources and ecosystems” and the “communities that depend on them” more climate resilient.
The ACWI workgroup's recommendations will be organized into topic areas that were identified in the 2011 National Action Plan for Managing Freshwater Resources in a Changing Climate:
- Improve data for water resources and climate information;
- Strengthen climate vulnerability assessment;
- Improve water use efficiency;
- Support integrated water resources management; and
- Educate water resource managers and build capacity.
One key recommendation from ACWI will be for the government to establish a coordinator position to integrate federal agency activities in the assessment, planning and management of water resources. A second recommendation is to empower and incentivize state and local governments to ensure the preparedness and resilience of their water resources by assessment and planning on a watershed basis.
ACWI will send the recommendations to CEQ for consideration in March. Workgroup participants include water resources experts from several federal agencies including EPA, Department of the Interior, Army Corps of Engineers, NOAA and USDA. In addition, at least a dozen professional associations and non-profit groups such as AMWA are workgroup members.