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<br />. <br /> <br />11 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />research, a national mood to look at revitalizing our cities and restoring <br />the environment, and the concomitant emergence of the systems approach and <br />essential computer hardware and software. The leadership in urban water <br />resources during the early years can be traced to the ASCE Urban Water Re- <br />sources Research Council headed by M.B. McPherson. McPherson et al. (1968) <br />point out that: <br /> <br />" \ <br /> <br />"A single aspect research approach is totally inadequate and, indeed, is <br />entirely inappropriate, for resolving multi-aspect problems. The former <br />simplistic approach of regarding a unit of water as a fixed entity, such as <br />storm water, must be abandoned for that same unit at a different point in <br />time will be categorized as water supply, recreation, esthetics, etc., per- <br />haps several times before leaving a given metropolis". <br /> <br />The AseE research group defined urban water resources to consist of: <br /> <br />a. urban water uses including water supply, recreation, and hydropower; <br />b. flood protection by structural and non-structural means; <br />c. manipulation of urban water for groundwater recharge and/or recycling; <br />d. pollution abatement for dry and wet-weather flows; and <br />e. interfacial public services including street sweeping.and air pollution <br />control. <br /> <br />The 1970 decade was the period of most rapid advances in urban water <br />resources research and model development particularly in the area of urban <br />stormwater quantity and quality management (Heaney 1986). Through its Storm <br />and Combined Sewer Program, EPA sponsored $60-70 million in research, tech- <br />nology transfer and demonstration projects. Virtually, all of the current <br />innovations in the field can be traced to this program. Concurrently, EPA <br />sponsored $250 million in areawide wastewater management studies in virtually <br />all metropolitan areas in the United States. The $30 million Nationwide <br />Urban Runoff Program (NURP) funded 28 studies across the country during 1979- <br />1983 with heavy emphasis on data collection (U.S. EPA 1983). The $100 mil- <br />lion of EPA sponsored research in urban stormwater was designed to provide <br />more cost-effective decision making for an expected national investment which <br />is now estimated to be about $40 billion. Thus, the percentage investment in <br />R&D for this activity is about 0.25 %. As a general guideline, a reasonable <br />investment in R&D for newer technologies is 1 to 5% (Kim et al. 1993). Thus, <br />the R&D investment in urban stormwater quality management was on the low side <br />even during this period. <br />HEC was founded in 1964 (Feldman 1981) to link the basic research of <br />academics and the practical needs of the Corps field offices. HEC developed <br />many of the models for the Corps of Engineers Urban Studies Program which <br />existed in the 1970's at the same that EPA's 208 Areawide Planning Program <br />was active. The purpose of the Corps' Urban Studies Program was to provide <br />an "integrated approach to water resources management." These studies were <br />conducted in numerous cities around the United States. As expected, there <br />were concerns regarding the extent to which the Corps should deal with water <br />quality issues that could alternatively be handled by the U.S. Environmental <br />Protection Agency. <br />In stark contrast to the excitement and innovations of the 1960's and <br />1970's, drastic cuts were made in the early 1980's in funding of all aspects <br />of urban water systems. The EPA research programs and the Corps Urban Stud- <br />ies initiative ended. The Office of Water Research and Technology (OWRT) was <br />eliminated in 1982 and the remnants of the program were transferred to the <br /> <br />3 <br />