Founded in 2002, the mission of the River Systems Institute (formerly the Institute for Sustainable Water Resources) is:

To develop and promote programs and techniques for ensuring sustainable water resources for human needs, ecosystem health and economic development.

The Institute is committed to helping protect and conserve water resources while promoting economic development and social well-being by:

• advancing scientific and technical knowledge through research on aquatic resources;
• identifying and analyzing socio-economic and political issues affecting water use;
• guiding the development of environmentally sustainable public water policy in Texas;
• cultivating public awareness and education about water resource issues.

At Texas State, the Institute serves as an integrating mechanism for the university’s multidisciplinary expertise in aquatic resources. Texas State is home to a distinguished array of departments and research centers engaged in critical scholarly work on water management issues. The Institute’s projects create new opportunities to disseminate this significant repository of knowledge and information to the community at large.

By forging partnerships with concerned stakeholders, the Institute hopes to foster practical solutions to the real-world problems of water resource management. As use and sustainability takes center stage in a global economy, cooperative strategies must secure the protection of this irreplaceable resource - water.