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Prepared by the Water Laws Committee of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of ASCE. 

This book presents a model of a coherent body of law that can be used to improve existing water allocation laws. Appropriative rights takes its name from the legal requirement that water be appropriated and applied to a beneficial use in order for one to acquire the right to use it. Today, appropriative rights remain in the predominant body of law for the quantitative allocation of water in the 18 states west of Kansas City.

A detailed review of existing water allocation laws in these states formed the basis for this report and its hydrologically-based legal framework that balances human and environmental needs. The model integrates the management of water quality and water quantity; it also takes into consideration the appropriate social, economical, political, and administrative aspects of water management.

This committee report is the first coherent and comprehensive model that legislatures can consider as a basis for creating a standardized water code for all the states. Notably, the book is presented in menu style and can be used whole or in part as deemed appropriate by a given legislature.