Water Science and Technology Board and Its Activities

This NSF award will provide core support for the activities of the Water Science and Technology Board (WSTB) of the Division on Earth and Life Studies of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). WSTB provides an important convening function for discussion and sharing of knowledge among academia, government, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector on topics of relevance to water science, engineering, technology, and policy.

WSTB organizes two public meetings each year and oversees a range of consensus studies, workshops, and other activities through agreements with federal agencies and other sponsors. At its semiannual meetings, the Board invites presentations, and coordinates discussions on significant and emerging water-related topics of national and global importance.

Proposed topics of discussion during this award period will include the impact of climate change and associated extreme weather events (e.g., droughts, floods, and wildfires) on water quantity, quality, and availability from both a hydrological and engineering perspective; innovative surveillance methods for contaminants of emerging concern (CECs); environmental justice and inequities in drinking water and wastewater resource allocation and management; and the co-production of knowledge on water resources management in collaboration with relevant stakeholders and holders of traditional bodies of knowledge including Indigenous, rural, and underrepresented communities. During this award period, WSTB will also leverage NSF core support funding to seek out opportunities to engage with other federal agencies.

This strategic engagement will enable WSTB to better understand the federal water landscape and provide both WSTB and NSF with opportunities to identify synergies on water related crosscutting grand challenges and research needs as the Nation develops and implements a plan to achieve water security under a changing climate.

Water is essential to the existence of all forms of life. In the United States, the development of water infrastructure has expanded the control and immediate availability of water resources well beyond their natural surface or subsurface boundaries, but also often beyond their natural capacities for replenishment. The societal need of clean water for potable, agricultural, and industrial usages rely on continuing to advance technology, but also on a deep understanding of the global water cycle and its interactions with other natural Earth systems.

This is becoming ever more urgent with climate change and changing land use patterns (causing or exacerbating extreme weather events such as drought, flooding, wildfires, and aridification), and with the increasing contamination of surface water systems and groundwater aquifers with contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) such as PFAS and microplastic waste. The Water Science and Technology Board (WSTB) was established in 1982 to oversee and conduct water-related activities at the National Academies.

This charge is broad, covering all aspects of water science, engineering, technology, and policy. As a standing body, WSTB combines decades of professional expertise with a unique neutral convening forum that allows it to provide a scientific and technological foundation for stewardship of water resources in the Unites States and beyond. Broad themes that WSTB might explore during this NSF award period will include impacts of climate change (such as drought, flooding, wildfire, and aridification) on water availability and quality; environmental justice and water equity for underserved populations; next generation drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems; water reallocation and reuse; managed aquifer recharge; impact of emerging contaminants (e.g.

PFAS and micro/nano plastics) on water quality and availability; floodplain management; water systems engineering; aquatic ecosystem functioning and restoration; and legal, economic, and regulatory aspects of waterbodies. These are examples of areas where near-term input and engagement from the water science and engineering community would be critical as the Nation develops and implements a plan to achieve water security in the 21st century.

This award is co-funded by the NSF CBET Environmental Engineering and EAR Hydrologic Sciences programs.

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.