Advancing Water Resources Research and Management

The purpose of this presentation is to describe the growth and evolution of the Delaware River Basin Commission's (DRBC) presence on the Internet. The DRBC, a unique federal/state agency, was founded in 1961 to manage the water resources of the 13,539 square mile basin. Traditional methods of providing public information were used until 1996, when the agency became fully computerized. In January 1997, the Commission entered the world wide web with a few pages and many links to other agencies. Since then, the content of the web site has greatly expanded. The web has become an agency tool for public outreach and information. DRBC staffers realized the importance of the web and devoted their energies to expand certain functional areas. These include activities ranging from presenting information on Commission meetings, providing all reports and regulations in a downloadable format, listing of educational and recreational interests to special studies, to preparing GIS maps related to specific activities.  All of this work was found to be vital when the DRBC issued drought emergency actions during 1998 and 1999. The real utility of the web was that it could be quickly modified to inform the media and the public on the status of drought conditions. Staff provided daily reports of reservoir storage and flows for selected major tributaries. Conservation links were established and the Commission's drought operating regulations were crafted in terms to be easily understood by the public. As the popularity of the site increases, new uses are being developed.
 
 

The use of the world wide web has added exciting new dimensions in outreach for both public agencies and the public. A recent job announcement posted on the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) web site for an engineer/hydrologist included the following as part of the job description, "Responsible for expanding the Commission's web site to provide current educational information on flood and drought response and management." Who would have included such a statement a year, five years or ten years ago? Web usage has been evolutionary and revolutionary.

In January 1997, the DRBC entered the world wide web with a few pages and some links to other agencies. Since then, the content of the web site has been greatly expanded. Drought conditions in 1998 and 1999, and increasing web usage, added impetus to our web site development. The evolutionary steps in developing an agency web presence will be described and the innovative aspects will be explained.
 
 

The Delaware River Basin Compact, enacted by concurrent legislation in 1961 by Delaware, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and the Federal government, created the Delaware River Basin Commission. The Compact assigned it a coordinating, planning and development role in managing water resources in the four-State, 13,539 square mile region drained by the watersheds of the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, and their many tributaries. The Commission is composed of five members, one each from the five parties signatory to the Compact. Representing the States are the four governors, and the federal member is an appointee of the President of the United States, who most recently has been a uniformed officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The DRBC staff consists of 47 persons headquartered about one mile from the Delaware River in West Trenton, N.J. The staff includes scientists, engineers, planners and public administrators. Commission programs include: water quality protection, watershed planning, water supply allocation, regulatory review, water conservation initiatives, drought management, flood loss reduction and recreation.

Seven percent (18 million people) of the nation's population relies on the waters of the Delaware River Basin for drinking and industrial use. Yet it drains only four-tenths of one percent of the total continental US land area.

Two stretches of the Delaware River, extending 107 miles from Hancock, N.Y. to the Delaware Water Gap, have been included in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The two designated river corridors, the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, total 124,929 acres and are the only river reaches located within a one to two hour drive of about 20 percent of the US population.

As a result of cleanup efforts in the tidal Delaware River, shad and other fish are increasing in number. A record number of juvenile shad were netted in the Delaware during 1996, a strong indication of exceptionally good spawning runs when these fish return to the river as adults. A recent study of Delaware River shad fishing placed a $3.2 million annual value on this fishery alone.
 
 

Traditional methods of providing public information and outreach were used until 1996, when the agency became fully computerized. A computerization plan was adopted by the Commissioners which provided that an in-house computer network be established and all staff have a computer with access to e-mail and the Internet. Further, the Commission would develop web site and geographic information system capabilities.

Various alternatives were investigated for establishing a web site. One particularly attractive solution was to be hosted by the State of New Jersey. This has proven to be very beneficial to the DRBC, especially in recent months when maps have been placed on the web.

New Jersey Web Rules
When the web site was initially developed, the New Jersey Office of Information Technology had very specific rules on the format of web pages: no JAVA scripts, no frames and a white background. A more difficult criterion was that the web pages had to work on all browsers.

Web Creation
In the Fall of 1996, a small team of volunteer staff members was assembled. No one had formal training in web creation or HTML coding. The employees had diverse educational backgrounds and came from all staff levels. All exhibited enthusiasm and a common goal to create a web site that would be useful to the public and themselves.

The initial step involved the review of other web sites to look for web design ideas. While appearance and presentation were important, content was defined as the most important outcome. With this in mind, DRBC staff emphasizes a strategy to describe: "Who We Are" and "What We Do."

One of the DRBC staff members, with an artists background, designed a new logo, which was later adopted for all stationary and other public contact uses. This logo was the focal point of the web home page and all subsequent pages.

The Commissioners approved the work in January 1997. After less than three months of staff effort on a part-time basis, the web site was available to the world.

Content
The "What We Do" page contains notices of Commission meetings and hearings, as well as minutes, news releases, stream flows and reservoir levels. On our "Who We Are" page, information about the Commission is presented including pictures of the Commissioners and Alternates and names and telephone numbers of staff.

Because of the interstate nature of the Delaware River and the numerous agencies and organizations involved in some aspect of water resources management, data about the Basin is scattered on many web sites. Efforts were made to link information to other agencies and organizations on a basinwide scale as much as possible.

Based on public comments and needs, recent staff reports were converted into a downloadable format and placed on the web. DRBC Regulations also were converted. By making documents available on the web, considerable savings were realized by reducing the time copying and mailing the documents. Further, the regulated community and their consultants did not have to wait to receive the information.

The Commissioners were actively working on certain strategic planning efforts, including the development of a Vision of future DRBC roles. The draft Vision statement was placed on the web for public review and comment. The Vision and Mission were adopted in December 1997.

Job postings also were placed on the web. Applicants could research the agency before applying for the position.

In 1998, the Commission held public hearings on the Southeastern Pennsylvania Ground Water Protected Area, a region with limited ground water potential. Water purveyors, consultants, the news media and the public were all interested. Maps and other data were made available for viewing and/or downloading.

Drought Information
Drought conditions in 1998 and 1999 spurred the expansion of the web. It proved that the web was one of the fastest methods for getting information to the public. The number of "hits" to the web page doubled during the drought months. Information created for the web appeared on the evening news or in the morning newspapers.
 

For many years, staff prepared a daily report on storage and streamflow which includes a graphic of storage levels and drought levels. In 1998, this report was placed on the web as water levels declined. It was immediately picked up by the news media. Also presented was the definition of drought. Reservoir storage in the New York City Delaware Basin system is a key factor. A cartoon of a water drop with a tightened belt around it was was a unifying element (image) for the drought related pages.

As a result of the currency of the data and other information such as Conservation Orders, our Public Information Officer was called for quotes about the drought rather than details. This in turn prompted us to create a "News Media link" at the bottom of the page to provide reports, news releases and facts about the Commission and the basin. Reporters frequently provide positive comments about the link.

The drought of 1999 caught the public off guard, because reservoirs were full. But lack of rain the previous year caused unusually low ground water levels. With the continued lack of rainfall beginning in May of 1999, soil dried out and agriculture was severely impacted. This was followed by water supply shortages. In Delaware and New Jersey, the drought conditions were the worst in 105 years. Pennsylvania also was severely dry. The "old" drought files were updated and expanded. Because of the news media experience with our drought pages from the previous year, our site was regularly accessed.

Staffing
Until recently we did not have any one staff member assigned to web maintenance and updates. Our Public Information Officer was responsible for editorial content and a technician was responsible for file transfer and storage. It became increasingly clear that the web was a staff intensive effort. Initially, a part-time position was created. The person hired was working on her Masters in Educational Communications and Technology with the web as her emphasis. With her help, we added all the regulations in a downloadable format. She redesigned the web site to improve its appearance and functionality. It is her basic design that appears today.

The new web design was launched shortly after the arrival of our new Executive Director, Carol Collier. Ms. Collier is a proponent of the web and has encouraged staff innovations to expand its use and development.

Tail Wagging the Dog
Our agency is small, but the web site rivals those of the big agencies. Among New Jersey agencies and departments, the DRBC's web page rates in the top ten in terms of hits on the New Jersey web server.

Initially, only a few staff members recognized the utility of the web in helping them do their job. Now, new uses are being considered, i.e., the inclusion of expanding the Commission's web site in the job description for the Engineer/Hydrologist. A new staff position, Assistant Public Information Officer, was recently created. Among his many duties is maintenance of the web site. This has proven to be almost a full-time job.

Future
One area that has been slow to develop has been Internet mapping. Part of the delay was the development of Geographic Information System (GIs) capability. Another was acquiring the hardware and software tools to deliver the product. Again, the decision to be hosted by the State of New Jersey proved to be useful. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has been a leader in GIs development and coordination throughout the state. Once NJDEP developed the resources to deliver maps on the web, the DRBC was able to place its maps on the same system. This was a considerable saving in hardware, software and staff time.

Similarly, at the request of the City of Philadelphia Water Department, a source water protection effort was initiated on the web. Initially, real-time stream gages for the Schuylkill River watershed were placed as links on a map of the watershed. River miles, intake locations, major roads and other data were also presented. Ultimately, time-of-travel information will be added to provide water purveyors and other interested parties with the necessary information to take precautions when a hazardous waste spill occurs.

Another new area is Waterway Corridors which is intended to explain the causes and solutions to such features as eroding streambanks, leaning trees, and silted-over stream bottoms. Among the goals is to provide information to technical users, municipal officials and watershed groups on the importance of protecting and restoring waterway corridors. Users are requested to submit pictures of changes to waterway corridors. By gathering monitoring data within a corridor, the quantitative relationships of the causes and effects can be obtained.
 
 

Because the DRBC is a small agency, we can operate with more flexibility than many large government organizations. Innovations were tried and many were successful. Part of the success can be associated to the approaches taken to build the site. Perhaps the most important was that of being able to utilize the talents of our staff. The DRBC still does not have a person with true "webmaster" skills. Rather, we have built upon the abilities of many to build and expand our web.

Because of economic necessity, we collaborated with other government agencies whenever possible. This has resulted in our web being hosted by New Jersey and GIs maps being served by the NJDEP. Geographically focused information and data are being made available at minimal costs.

The web became a unifying tool for staff. New ideas and approaches consistently are being tested. No longer is the question asked, "Can we place this on the web?" Rather, the question is, "How do we best present this information?"

The needs of the citizens, the regulated community and the media have been addressed whenever possible. Staff members now "work for the web" by making information available and by referring people to the site.

The real utility of the web was evidenced during the droughts of 1998 and 1999. Information could be quickly assembled or modified to inform the media and the public on the status of the drought.

Finally, we have tried to be innovative in using the web ourselves and referring people to the site. The web's usefulness to the DRBC staff in data collection and communication has been one of our greatest assets and it has been designed as a tool for staff. It provides links to rapidly assemble the types of water resources data important to decision making. It also capitalizes on the outstanding advances by state and federal agencies such as the US Geological Survey and the National Weather Service.

The last slide on all staff presentations is our web address:

Appreciation is expressed to the State of New Jersey for hosting the Delaware River Basin Commission web page.

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