This chapter attempts to develop the concept of sustainability and make it
operational in the realm of water resources management. Water is unique in its primacy
among natural resources as an essential component of life itself. Due to its equally unique
chemical and physical properties, water carries with it a history of where it has been and its
courses in the hydrologic cycle are readily measured or observed. However, the transience
of some fluxes of water in the hydrologic cycle is more difficult to predict or manage. From
a management perspective, this is problematic as it is often impossible to accumulate all of
the necessary freshwater resources in one place by rainfall and runoff alone. Therefore we
must manage other parts of the water cycle to account for anthropogenic objectives, and
this would include mining groundwater, controlling evaporation in irrigated systems among
a host of other tradeoffs that currently depend in great part upon economic factors. We will
explore through case studies in Germany and Cincinnati OH how social-equity and
environmental objectives must also be considered with the same weight as economic
factors. The influence of an expanded and more integrated view of the hydrologic cycle is
illustrated through examples and case studies, and provides an introduction to and ideas for
the notion that water resources can be more sustainably managed through the recognition of
exchangeable social, cultural, natural resource, and technological capitals.
Keywords: Weak-strong sustainability, social capital, storm water management,
incentives, urban water cycle, agricultural hydrology, environmental management,
wastewater management in Germany, integrated water management.
