Mission	"To advance multidisciplinary water resources education, management and research."
Established	1964
President	Michael E. Campana
Headquarters	Middleburg, Virginia
Membership	3,000
Founder	Sandor Csallany
Homepage	www.awra.org

Founded in 1964, the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) is a non-profit professional association dedicated to the advancement of men and women in water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

 resources management, research, and education. With almost 2,500 members, it is the major U.S. organization in the field. AWRA’s membership includes engineers, educators, foresters, biologists, ecologists, geographers, managers, regulators, hydrologists and attorneys. AWRA organizes conferences, publishes the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA), the Water Resources IMPACT magazine, and sponsors Technical Committees, State Sections and Student Chapters.

AWRA has a seat on the Board of Governors of the World Water Council

World Water Council

The World Water Council is an international think tank founded in 1996, with its headquarters in Marseilles, France. It has 323 members from the private sector , government ministries, academic institutions, international financial institutions , the UN...

 and participates in the triennial World Water Forum

World Water Forum

Every three years the World Water Council organizes a World Water Forum in close collaboration with the authorities of the host country. The World Water Forum is the largest international event in the field of water—over 30,000 participants from more than 190 countries attended the last...

Conferences

AWRA sponsors a minimum of three conferences a year: a Spring Specialty Conference, a Summer Specialty Conference, and an Annual Water Resources Conference (held in November). The three day Specialty Conferences focus such areas as Geological Information Systems, Riparian Ecosystems, Adaptive Management, Emerging Contaminants in the Environment, Wetlands Restoration, Watershed Management, Agricultural Hydrology, Coastal Water Resources, and Climate Change. The four day Annual Conferences offer a comprehensive program of oral and poster presentations, Plenary Sessions, field trips and workshops. The AWRA also holds a series of Water Policy Dialogues focusing on water policy and management at the local, state and federal levels. Additionally, the AWRA periodically co-hosts international conferences with other international water resources organizations.

Publications

Each conference produces a proceedings (now available on CD ROM. though earlier proceedings were in print): the Specialty Conference proceedings includes papers and abstracts, while the Annual Conference proceedings are abstracts.

The Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA). JAWRA publishes original papers with a broad approach to water resources issues. All papers are refereed prior to publication. JAWRA is published bi-monthly, beginning with the February issue. Prior to 1997, JAWRA was known as Water Resources Bulletin.

Water Resources IMPACT Magazine, originally started as a newsletter, evolved into a magazine with articles addressing the practical issues of water resources management. Published bi-monthly, each issue is devoted to a particular topic. Some recent issues include Homeland Security, National Hydrography

Hydrography

Hydrography is the measurement of the depths, the tides and currents of a body of water and establishment of the sea, river or lake bed topography and morphology. Normally and historically for the purpose of charting a body of water for the safe navigation of shipping...

 Dataset, Decision Support for Adapting to Climate Change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

, Energy and Water, Water Rights, Contaminants of Emerging Concern.

Technical Committees

Open only to members, the committees promote an open exchange of ideas via list serves and bulletin boards on a variety of current topics of concern:

Caulfield Medal

Since 1988, AWRA has periodically awarded a Henry P. Caulfield, Jr.

Henry P. Caulfield, Jr.

Henry P. Caulfield, Jr."The epic"' was an American political scientist who had a long and distinguished career in public service with the U.S. Department of the Interior, culminating as the first Director of its U.S. Water Resources Council, before becoming Professor of Political Science at...

Medal for Exemplary Contributions to National Water Policy to an individual who has achieved eminence in shaping national water policy. On presentation of the first medal to Caulfield in 1988, AWRA President Raymond Herrmann said: "this medal was established to honor an individual whose record of achievements and contributions in setting, designing, and implementing water resources policies at the national level have been extraordinary."

Maidment Award

In 2010 at its Spring Specialty Conference on GIS & Water Resources, AWRA awarded the AWRA Award for Exemplary Contributions to Water Resources Data and Information Systems to David R. Maidment, and then announced its decision to name this award after him. This award recognizes individuals who have made sustained contributions to water resources data by providing leadership in the provision of particular kinds of data, or by improving synthesis of water data using geographic and other information systems. It is awarded in conjunction with the AWRA Specialty Conferences on the topic.

External links

• American Water Resources Association
• Journal of the American Water Resources Association http://www.awra.org/jawra/ Accessed 1-29-09.
• Complete list of AWRA Awards and Recipients http://www.awra.org/about/awards_historical.pdf Accessed 8-9-2010.