&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
The National Water Program
Research Strategy
Strategy Objectives
The National Water Program Research Strategy (the Strategy")
comprehensively defines the research needed by the National Water
Program to address EPA's Strategic Goals and Sub-objectives for clean and
safe water.
The Strategy will achieve three objectives:
• ensure the national Water Program's research, science, and
technology needs are identified and documented in a comprehensive
plan that supports our commitment to collaborative corporate
planning, prioritization, and research management to meet the
environmental goals of the National Water Program;
• expand research partnerships and collaborations across EPA and the
federal research family;
• engage the broader research community in the investigation of water
research needs.
What you will find in the Strategy:
Four Priority Research Themes
Five Technical Tool Areas
A Three Tiered Hierarchy of Research Needs
-------
The National Water Program Research Strategy
Four Research Themes
The Strategy is organized in four chapters that discuss high level research Themes selected by
the OW Executive Committee for Research (ECR) to represent comprehensive water research
priorities.
Healthy Watersheds and Coastal Waters
Research Needs
Research under this theme is used by programs to
improve water quality to protect and restore waters to
their designated uses, thereby protecting the health of
humans, aquatic life and wildlife.
Safe Drinking Water Research Needs
Research under this theme is used in programs that
provide safe drinking water and protect sources of
drinking water.
Sustainable Water Infrastructure Research Needs
Research under this theme is used in programs that
protect water resources by promoting conservation
and efficient water use, supporting innovative drinking
water and wastewater infrastructure design and
renovation, enabling effective decentralized wastewater
treatment programs, evaluating point source
abatement and control programs, and other wastewater
management functions.
Water Security Research Needs
Research under this theme investigates ways to better
secure the nation's drinking water and wastewater
systems against threats and attacks, with a focus on
the nation's drinking water and wastewater supply,
infrastructure, treatment, and distribution systems.
Technical Tool Areas
To organize the research needs within
each theme and communicate them
more clearly to collaborators, the
research needs were grouped by
the type of technical tool areas they
address. Research needs fell into the
following five technical tool areas.
• Aquatic Life Health Effects
• Human Health Effects
• Method Development
• Occurrence and Exposure
• Treatment Technologies and
Effectiveness
Tiered Hierarchy of Needs
The research needs within each technical tool area
were sorted into three tiers to communicate the
relevant driver and urgency. The criteria to classify a
need for each tier are given below.
• Tier 1: On critical path to satisfy a statutory,
regulatory, court ordered, or Agency/Office
strategic obligation.
• Tier 2: Supports, augments, or improves
existing and adequate tools, guidance,
or policy, or would enhance new critical path
research products.
• Tier 3: Investigates potential environmental
concerns of the future, or takes advantage
of a serendipitous opportunity to leverage
resources or an initiative.
Office of Water (4304T) EPA 822-F-09-005 October 2009 www.epa.gov/waterscience/strategy
------- |