How to become Water Resource Specialist in 2024

Water Resource Specialist Design or implement programs and strategies related to water resource issues such as supply, quality, and regulatory compliance issues.

Water Resource Specialist is Also Know as

In different settings, Water Resource Specialist is titled as

  • Water Resources Planner

Education and Training of Water Resource Specialist

Water Resource Specialist is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Water Resource Specialist

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Water Resource Specialist

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Water Resource Specialist

Training Required for Water Resource Specialist

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Water Resource Specialist in different industries are

What Do Water Resource Specialist do?

  • Supervise teams of workers who capture water from wells and rivers.
  • Review or evaluate designs for water detention facilities, storm drains, flood control facilities, or other hydraulic structures.
  • Negotiate for water rights with communities or water facilities to meet water supply demands.
  • Perform hydrologic, hydraulic, or water quality modeling.
  • Compile water resource data, using geographic information systems (GIS) or global position systems (GPS) software.
  • Compile and maintain documentation on the health of a body of water.
  • Write proposals, project reports, informational brochures, or other documents on wastewater purification, water supply and demand, or other water resource subjects.
  • Recommend new or revised policies, procedures, or regulations to support water resource or conservation goals.
  • Provide technical expertise to assist communities in the development or implementation of storm water monitoring or other water programs.
  • Present water resource proposals to government, public interest groups, or community groups.
  • Identify methods for distributing purified wastewater into rivers, streams, or oceans.
  • Monitor water use, demand, or quality in a particular geographic area.
  • Identify and characterize specific causes or sources of water pollution.
  • Develop plans to protect watershed health or rehabilitate watersheds.
  • Develop or implement standardized water monitoring and assessment methods.
  • Conduct technical studies for water resources on topics such as pollutants and water treatment options.
  • Conduct, or oversee the conduct of, investigations on matters such as water storage, wastewater discharge, pollutants, permits, or other compliance and regulatory issues.
  • Conduct cost-benefit studies for watershed improvement projects or water management alternatives.
  • Analyze storm water systems to identify opportunities for water resource improvements.
  • Develop strategies for watershed operations to meet water supply and conservation goals or to ensure regulatory compliance with clean water laws or regulations.
  • Conduct, or oversee the conduct of, chemical, physical, and biological water quality monitoring or sampling to ensure compliance with water quality standards.

Qualities of Good Water Resource Specialist

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.

Tools Used by Water Resource Specialist

  • Automated water sampling equipment
  • Binocular light compound microscopes
  • Chlorine testers
  • Desktop computers
  • Digital pH meters
  • Dissolved oxygen indicators
  • Global positioning system GPS receivers
  • Grab samplers
  • Gravitational field indicators
  • Laptop computers
  • Laser facsimile machines
  • Mobile radios
  • Multi-line telephone systems
  • Multiparameter water probes
  • Nitrate meters
  • Nitrite meters
  • Personal computers
  • Plankton nets
  • Rain gauges
  • Seines
  • Stream flow gauges
  • Temperature gauges
  • Titrators
  • Total dissolved solids TDS meters
  • Total stations
  • Turbidimeters
  • Water conductivity testers
  • Water flow meters
  • Water quality test kits
  • Water samplers

Technology Skills required for Water Resource Specialist

  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Customer relationship management CRM software
  • Database software
  • DHI MIKE URBAN
  • ESRI ArcGIS software
  • ESRI ArcGIS Spatial Analyst
  • ESRI ArcInfo
  • ESRI ArcPad
  • ESRI ArcView
  • ESRI ArcView 3D Analyst
  • FishXing
  • Geographic information system GIS software
  • Geographic information system GIS systems
  • Global positioning system GPS software
  • Google Earth Pro
  • HEC-HMS
  • HEC-RAS
  • Laboratory information management system LIMS
  • Mapping software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • MWH Soft H2ONET MSX
  • MWH Soft InfoSWMM
  • RIVERMorph
  • Structured query language SQL
  • TIBCO Spotfire S+
  • Wallingford Software InfoSewer
  • Wallingford Software InfoWater
  • Wallingford Software InfoWorks CS
  • Wallingford Software InfoWorks WS
  • Water flow modeling software
  • Web browser software
  • Word processing software