WATER MANAGEMENT UNDER DROUGHT CONDITIONS - OVERVIEW OF PRACTICES

The management of water resources under drought conditions has receive d added emphasis recently because of prolonged droughts affecting all regions of the United States. The American Society of Civil Engineers Irrigation and Drainage Division has supported a task committee to rev iew this topic. This paper summarizes some of the more important findi ngs of this task committee. The paper provides an overview of drought- response practices by federal and state agencies and discusses specifi c experiences by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps o f Engineers, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the states of Colorad o and California. The experiences of these organizations show the impo rtance of having a coordinated, interagency, well-defined response tha t is flexible enough to adapt to the unique nature of a situation.