Science, Public Policy, and Western American RiversWilliam L. GrafTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, Vol. 17, No. 1. (1992), pp. 5-19.Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-2754%281992%292%3A17%3A1%3C5%3ASPPAWA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-7Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers is currently published by The Royal Geographical Society (with theInstitute of British Geographers).Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/rgs.html.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academicjournals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community takeadvantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]://www.jstor.orgWed Jan 23 15:32:43 2008Science, public policy, and western American rivers WILLIAM L. GRAF Professor of Geography, Department of Geography, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-0104, USA (President's Guest Lecture, delivered at the Annual Conference of the Institute of British Geographers, Swansea, 7-10 January 1992) Revised MS received 10 October, 1991 ABSTRACT Effective science and well-informed public policy are the avenues to successful management of environmental resources. A critical review of geomorphology, hydrology, and public policy as employed in the management of the river resources of the western United States shows that the endeavours have been poorly connected to each other. Before about 1930, river management disregarded scientific input, while during the New Deal era federal support for river research stimulated a symbiotic relationship between science and policy. Renewed federal funding for research and the emergence of increas- ingly sophisticated theory and data for rivers during the 1950-1970 period enhanced the connection between science and public policy. In the post 1970 era of environmental protection and restricted research funding, hydrology and geomorphology have been slow to respond to policy needs for new scientific inputs. No longer centralized within a few groups and federal agencies, river research has become fragmented, and scientists have avoided politically sensitive policy issues. KEY WORDS: Science, Public policy, Rivers, Hydrology, Geom~rpholo~y, American West, Conservation INTRODUCTION one of the world's most intensively developed environmental management systems. One of the major arguments in favour of society's Geography, in its scientific and non-scientific support for scientific research is that the research can aspects, is a key to understanding river management explore questions that are central to the formulation in the western United States. The spatial distri-of policies benefiting the society's membership. butions of the resources are not coincidental with the Science is especially important in the arena of envir- distribution of users, and those who bear the costs of onmental policy that directs management of natural management are not necessarily those who enjoy the resources because natural systems are highly complex benefits. The impacts of development propagate and interconnected. Expensive management actions themselves throughout physical and social systems therefore must have a high probability of achieving extending far beyond the sites of engineering works their desired outcomes while avoiding unexpected designed to implement management strategies. and undesirable side effects. The purpose of this paper Finally, the value system used by most Americans in is to offer a critical review of the relationship between visualizing the western river system has undergone science and public policy in the twentieth-century significant changes during the twentieth century. management of western American rivers. These river Public policy formulated at one time to foster resources are instructive examples because they are economic development is now at odds with widely located in a region that has stimulated the develop- held values that favour preservation. ment of the sciences of hydrology and geomorpho- For the sake of convenience, the following discus- logy, and because they have been the subjects of sion is limited to the rivers west of the Rocky Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. N.S. 17: 005419 (1992) ISSN: 0020-2754 Printed in Great BritainWILLIAM L. GRAF 100 200 MILES FIGURE 1.Map showing major western American rlvers Mountains in the most arid portion of the United States (Figure 1).Because of the general aridity of the region, the development of the rivers there has been closely related to economic development of the area, and because of the large drainage basins involved (covering most of the ten Rocky Mountain and western states of about 2.8 x lo6km2),the federal government has been the primary policy force in the issue. The following discussion analyses the con- nections between science and public policy during four distinct but somewhat arbitrary periods for the western rivers: policy without science (1900-1930), policies using science for environmental and social control (1930-1950), the period of experimental science (1950-1970), and the period of environmen- tal impact assessment (1970-present). The discussion is mostly limited to sciences of hydrology and geo- morphology, but the conclusions extend to the life sciences as well. POLICY WITHOUT SCIENCE (1900-1930) Environmental science in the American federal government has always been closely tied to