o Reduction in wetland habitats has eliminated fish nursery 
and waterfowl migration and nesting areas (Josselyn, this 
volume). 
One technique for developing an appropriate research program 
and management scheme for addressing these problems is the sys¬ 
tems analysis approach, which has been used successfully in the 
space prgram. Its procedures are especially useful, since they 
were designed to analyze the organization and interrelationships 
among components of complex systems such as those found in nat¬ 
ural environments. 
Figures 1 and 2 show schematically the processes of formu¬ 
lation and solution of estuarine problems. These, along with 
decision-making, decision implementation, and analysis of differ¬ 
ences between the predicted results and those obtained, are the 
major parts of system methodology for solving multiple prob¬ 
lems. The application of a programmatic approach to organi¬ 
zation of complex systems raises a variety of methodological 
operations related to water resources management and research. 
The first category of operations are those which relate to: 
1) formulation of problems and objectives, i.e., de¬ 
scription of the current conditions or the results of 
scientific investigations; 
2) outlining "the tree of objectives"; 
3) developing a system of water resources management; 
4) creating an operational model of system's functions; 
5) establishing a research program designed to achieve the 
desired objectives; and 
6) implementing the research program. 
Formulation of the problem is particularly important in a 
programmatic approach since it determines the development of 
subsequent investigations. The most appropriate methodology for 
problem identification is based upon the system analysis ap¬ 
proach. According to this methodology, the process of problem 
formulation represents a chain of consecutive analytical and 
synthetic operations (Figure 3): 
1) evaluation and interpretation of the status of the 
ecosystem including description of trends in various 
parameters and their interactions. (Determine objec¬ 
tive) ; 
2) identification of problems and undesirable trends; 
129 
