Balancing Human and Natural Assets in a One-Water, Integrated Water Resource Management Framework Project

Deadline Date: November 14, 2024

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 Donor Name: Water Research Foundation

 Grant Size: $100,000 to $500,000

The Water Research Foundation (WRF) has launched the Balancing Human and Natural Assets in a One-Water, Integrated Water Resource Management Framework Project.

Project Objectives 

• Review and develop watershed condition metrics and assessment protocols for human and natural asset structures and functions that best describe watershed health and benefits in a social-ecological system context. 
• Evaluate the potential for landscape conservation, recovery, and mitigation management strategies to maintain and improve watershed condition and achieve aquatic ecosystem health targets along a disturbance gradient.
• Build an Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) and Natural and Nature-Based (NNB) decision-support framework for setting watershed condition goals and targets along a gradient that are consistent with user-defined designated use and ecosystem health goals that support desired social-ecological outcomes.
• Apply and test the decision-support framework or associated non-monetary social ecological models to quantitatively connect watershed condition management actions to desired water quality targets and aquatic ecosystem health outcomes.
• Use case studies or hypothetical management application scenarios to scope watershed landscape conservation and recovery practices with consideration of both riparian buffers and upland watershed areas assessment and management potential to meet WRF user defined objectives with consideration of changing landscape and climate drivers.
  • Identify derived benefits of balancing human and natural asset management for individual pollutant management, and how holistic, integrated watershed management outcomes can strategically guide policy and management of regulated wastewater and stormwater in watershed-based plans and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). 
  • Incorporate adaptive management approaches associated with changing landscapes and climate.

Funding Information

• Applicants may request up to $200,000 in WRF funds for this project

Project Duration

• The anticipated period of performance for this project is 24 months from the contract start date.

Eligibility Criteria

• Proposals will be accepted from both U.S.-based and non-U.S.-based entities, including educational institutions, research organizations, governmental agencies, and consultants or other for-profit entities.
• Researchers who are late on any ongoing WRF-sponsored studies without approved no-cost extensions are not eligible to be named participants in any proposals.

For more information, visit WRF.