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power for pumping water and the organization of rural water districts to develop adequate water supply and distribution systems have both contributed to the significant increase in the quantity of water used for rural household and I ivestock watering purposes. Irrigarion to supplement natural soil moisture is a long-establ ished practice in Kansas. One of the earl iest known water developments (probably about 1700) was the diversion of streamflow for irrigation by Indians in Scott County. United States Census records show that about 21,000 acres were being irrigated in the state by 1890. Since that time, except during the 1930's, there has been a progressive increase in acreage irrigated. In 1966, an estimated 1,200,000 acres were irrigated. The things people did with water in the past are likely to cast a mold for the future. The development of water resources requires construction of works with a reasonable degree of permanence and will require large investments to be paid off on the installment plan over periods of a decade or more. The development and implementation of a comprehensive long-range plan for Kansas water resources should be flexible so that it can be modified if future social and economic trends deviate from the predictions upon which the plan is based. A fi rst essent ial, therefore, is a forecast of the future because a plan to accommodate future requirements for water must be based upon some prediction, expressed or impl ied, of future needs. Actually any decision invoiving large capital investments that are to be amortized over a period of several decades impl ies a forecast. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, in cooperation with the Kansas Water Resources Board, is conducting (1972) a statewide investigation called the Kansas State Water Plan Studies. Dr. M. Jarvin Emerson has provided forecasts of population, employment, income, and industry output to the year 2020 as part of the investigation. Emerson's predictions of the future economy were then used to forecast future requirements for water. The repo'-t which follows describes those future water demands which were based upon the levels of economic activity forecast by Dr. Emerson. The report is divided into four parts. The first part deals with the economic forecasts made by Dr. Emerson. The second part deals with water usage in 1965 which is the base year for the study. The third part discusses the statewide and regional water requirements for the various projection years. The fourth part, the appendices, contains tabular information on county water requirements, techniques used by the Water Resources Board to translate the levels of economic activity forecast by Dr. Emerson into water requirements in the future, and references and definitions used in the report. 2.