Ames Borden Colt, Ph.D. RI Bays, Rivers, & Watersheds Coordination Team ames.colt@dem.ri.gov

1. Ecosystem-Based Management for Aquatic Environments & Water-Reliant Economies: Our Sisyphean Destiny Ames Borden Colt, Ph.D. RI Bays, Rivers, & Watersheds Coordination Team ames.colt@dem.ri.gov

2. Rhode Island

3. Governance Legislation Executive Management Regulation & Permitting

4. Polity Legislation Executive Management Regulation &Permitting PoliciesPlans/BudgetsLeadership LawsBudgets Leadership

5. DEM Legislation Executive Management CRMC Regulation/Permitting Legislation Executive Management Regulation/Permitting NBC Legislation Executive Management Regulation/Permitting

6. EPA DEM Legislation Executive Management NOAA CRMC Regulation/Permitting Legislation Executive Management NBC Regulation/Permitting Legislation Executive Management Regulation/Permitting

9. WHO MANAGES FRESHWATER? Water Resources Board Manages the state’s freshwater resources to ensure adequate supplies for people, economy and environment. Depart. of Environ. Management Manages and regulates the state’s water resources under state and federal laws. Public Utilities Commission Regulates rates charged by water suppliers who sell to areas outside their service district and by privately owned water companies. Depart. of Health Regulates drinking water under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

10. WHO MANAGES FRESHWATER? Water Resources Board Manages the state’s freshwater resources to ensure adequate supplies for people, economy and environment. Depart. of Environ. Management Manages and regulates the state’s water resources under state and federal laws. Public Utilities Commission Regulates rates charged by water suppliers who sell to areas outside their service district and by privately owned water companies. Depart. of Health Regulates drinking water under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Statewide Planning Program Creates master plans to guide future development of the state. Water Suppliers In RI, 480 supply systems range from the well in a rural restaurant to the 28 large systems that provide public water. Federal Agencies U. S. Geological Survey assesses and map water and geological resources. Other federal agencies provide standards, education & research. Municipalities Develop comprehensive land use plans and issue zoning and subdivision ordinances.

11. Networked Governance Third‑party government: service delivery by private firms & non‑profits. Joined‑up government: multiple government agencies provide integrated service. Digital communications. Consumer-driven services. (S. Goldsmith & W.D. Eggers, 2004)

12. Governance Values Science Management Monitoring Regulatory

13. Freshwaters Resource governance for surface & groundwaters that better reflects hydrologic linkages. State and federal facilitation of multi-scale watershed management. Coordination. Advancement. Robust indicators keyed to sustainable water resource principles and program goals. Progressive expansion and networking of chemical, biological, and physical monitoring systems. Fourth National Conf. On Science, Policy & the Environment (2004)

14. Waters, Shorelines& Watersheds Water-ReliantEconomies

15. Energy Water-ReliantEconomies Waters, Shorelines& Watersheds Climate ChangeSea-Level Rise

16. Complex Adaptive Systems “Fluidly changing collections of distributed interacting components that react to both their environments and to one another. “Electric power grid, telecommunications networks, the Internet, biological systems, ecological systems, social groups. “The multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary problems found within these systems are of such great complexity that traditional modeling methodologies are often considered inadequate.” - Argonne National Laboratory http://www.dis.anl.gov/exp/cas/index.html

17. Donald RobadueSystems Dynamics Sketch of BRW SLP Vision Statement

18. Social Ecology ConnectivityConditionsCapabilitiesCapital ConversationsCatalysts Science &Technology Cultural Built Environment Economic Larry Quick The Resilience Network www.resilientfutures.org

19. Odum and Odum. 2001. A Prosperous Way Down: Principles and Policies Desbonnet & Costa-Pierce. 2007. Science for Ecosystem-Based Management: Narragansett Bay in the 21st Century

20. Ecosystem-Based Management The management of human activities to ensure that marine ecosystems, their structure (e.g., biological diversity), function (e.g., productivity) and overall environmental quality (e.g., water and habitat quality) are not compromised and are maintained at appropriate temporal and spatial scales. - Canada Depart. of Fisheries & Oceans (2005)

21. EBM: Integrated consideration of the entire ecosystem, including human dimensions. Maintain healthy, productive and resilient conditions to protect ecosystem services humans want and need. “Differs from current approaches that usually focus on a single species, sector, activity or concern.” Communications Partnership for Science and the Sea (2004)

22. EBM: • Organizes and networks single resource and sector management and regulatory programs. • Addresses cumulative impacts. • Recognizes temporal and spatial dynamism and complexity of ecosystems. • Demands long-term and comprehensive environmental data sets.

23. Risks addressed • Possibilities for abrupt, unanticipated changes. • Ecosystems are not infinitely resilient. • Ecosystem services nearly always undervalued.

24. EBM in RI: • “Place-based” economic and recreational • development and historical restoration: The Blackstone River Valley • CRMC Special Area Management Plans • DEM Water Quality Restoration Plans (TMDL’s)

25. The Rhode Island Bays, Rivers, & Watersheds Coordination TeamDefine & implement interagency policies for ecosystem‑based management & sustainable development of Rhode Island’s fresh & marine waters & watersheds.

26. BRWCT Department of Environmental Management W. Michael Sullivan, Ph.D.(Director) Coastal Resources Management Council Michael Tikoian (CRMC Chair) Division of Planning Kevin Flynn (Assoc. Director) Economic Development Corporation Saul Kaplan (Exec. Director)

27. BRWCT Department of Environmental Management W. Michael Sullivan, Ph.D.(Director) Coastal Resources Management Council Michael Tikoian (CRMC Chair) Division of Planning Kevin Flynn (Assoc. Director) Economic Development Corporation Saul Kaplan (Exec. Director) Water Resources Board Juan Mariscal, P.E. (General Manager) Narragansett Bay Commission Raymond Marshall, P.E. ( Exec. Director) Rivers Council Guy Lefbevre & Jane Sherman (Council Co- Chairs)

28. Governor Municipalities Public Advisory Comm. Narr. Bay Commission DEM Env. Monitoring Collab. Science Advisory Comm. Div. Of Planning CRMC Water Resources Board RI Rivers Council EDC Economic Monitoring Collab. General Assembly

29. Rhode Island Bays Rivers & Watersheds Systems-Level Plan: 2009-2013 Sectioned by issue. Define issues and key attributes. Develop insight into conflicts between interests. Goals and strategies distilled from previous collaborations and agency-based strategic planning.

30. Waterfront and Coastal Development: Balanced, well‑designed shorelines and waterfronts that accommodate marine‑related industry, transportation, recreation, housing, and conservation. Watersheds: Healthy, resilient ecological function and structure in watersheds at multiple spatial scales. Water‑Reliant Economies: Thriving businesses that rely upon aquatic resources and/or waterfronts (long-term profitability).

31. Natural Hazards: Human life, property, infrastructure, and natural resources resilient to and protected against the hazards of storms and floods. Freshwater Supply: Ample, reliable, and safe fresh water supplies utilized sustainably. Water Quality: Fresh and marine waterbodies that support “natural” aquatic habitats and “expected” biological diversity.

32. Fisheries and Aquaculture: Sustainable and profitable freshwater and marine fisheries and aquaculture. Aquatic Habitats and Invasive Species: Healthy and diverse ecosystems that multiply human values for freshwater, coastal, and marine fisheries and wildlife.

33. BRW Systems-Level Plan: 2009-2013 Objective Strategy Action Lead Time

34. BRW SLP Implementation How could interagency strategic planning help to allocate static or declining agency capacities? What incentives or mandates should the General Assembly and the Governor consider to ensure that the BRWCT agencies act?

35. BRWCT Responsibilities Strategic planning cycle: plan, implement, evaluate. Environmental data and knowledge dissemination. Policy analysis. Oversight mechanism for the RI General Assembly.

36. BRWCT Responsibilities Training and support for local and regional governments. Project facilitation. Funding. Budgeting by outcomes.

39. RI DEM groundwater protection policies stipulate that • (Planning-mandated) Local Comprehensive Plans must: • Describe the community’s groundwater resources. • B) Characterize the uses/benefits of groundwater: • C) Establish and implement policies to prevent degradation • of groundwater quality.

40. Map community’s groundwater resourcesUS Geological Survey

41. Characterize uses & benefits & assess threats Incorporate into local comp. plan existing Depart. of Health and EPA source water assessments of public water supplies, and recommended protection strategies. As these assessments become obsolete, communities will need to update based uponmore detailed DoH requirements.

42. Implement protection measures for WHPA’s and groundwater sensitive and dependent areas. Planning and zoning requirements Land conservation Land development standards Onsite wastewater management programs Regulation of use and storage of hazardous materials

43. Problems will always torment us because all important problems are insoluble: that is why they are important. The good comes from the continuing struggle to try and solve them, not from the vain hope of their solution. – Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

44. Sisyphus The struggle itself...is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. Albert Camus Titian, 1549

45. www.coordinationteam.ri.govames.colt@dem.ri.gov