The Burns-Porter Act: A California High Water Mark

State Water Contractors (SWC) | April 2nd, 1984

The California drought: A quasi-experimental analysis of social policy

Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (Wiley) | January 15th, 1980

The California Peripheral Canal: Who Backed It, Who Fought It

California Agriculture (UCANR) | January 3rd, 1983

The California Storm of January 1862

Quaternary Research (Elsevier) | September 2nd, 1996

The greatest storm in the written history of California struck the region in the winter of 1861–1862. The unusual weather began on Christmas Eve, 1861, and persisted fo

The greatest storm in the written history of California struck the region in the winter of 1861–1862. The unusual weather began on Christmas Eve, 1861, and persisted for some 45 days as a series of middle-latitude cyclones made landfall along the California coast. Episodes of very cold and very warm temperatures occurred both during the storm and in the spring of 1862 as meridional flow prevailed. Heavy precipitation swelled the Santa Ana River to more than triple the highest estimated discharge in this century. High water levels in coastal streams between Los Angeles and San Diego persisted into the spring. Lakes were created in the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert. Arroyos were cut. Sediments from the flood may be preserved in offshore basins.

The California Stream Condition Index

California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) | December 1st, 2015

The California Stream Conditon Index (CSCI) is a biological scoring tool that helps aquatc resource managers translate complex data about benthic macroinver

The California Stream Conditon Index (CSCI) is a biological scoring tool that helps aquatc resource managers translate complex data about benthic macroinvertebrates found living in a stream into an overall measure of stream health. The CSCI score indicates whether, and to what degree, the ecology of a stream is altered from a healthy state. Direct measures of ecosystem health like the CSCI are preferable to those based on chemical or physical measurements for many management questons. Living organisms integrate the efects of multple stressors, such as sedimentaton, nutrient enrichment and riparian disturbance, over both space and tme.

The California Stream Condition Index (CSCI): A New Statewide Biological Scoring Tool for Assessing the Health of Freshwater Streams

California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) | September 1st, 2015

California’s dramatic environmental diversity supports a broad array of natural stream types throughout the state. Bioassessment of freshwater stream and rivers is esp

California’s dramatic environmental diversity supports a broad array of natural stream types throughout the state. Bioassessment of freshwater stream and rivers is especially challenging in such a region because the reference condition, or the benchmark of biological condition expected when human disturbance in the environment is absent or minimal, varies greatly among natural stream types. Previous indices used by monitoring programs were developed on a regional basis to help partition the state’s environmental diversity, but statewide assessments were confounded by different criteria used in different regions. The CSCI, which translates complex data about individual benthic macroinvertebrates (BMIs) found living in a stream into an overall measure of stream health, was developed specifically to address some of the shortcomings of earlier indices. First, the CSCI was developed with a much larger, more representative data set that makes it applicable statewide and that covers the broad range of environmental variability among natural stream types. Second, the CSCI sets biological benchmarks for a site based on its site-specific environmental setting. Finally, the CSC combines two separate types of indices, each of which provides unique information about the biological condition of a stream: a multi-metric index (MMI) that measures ecological structure and function, and an observed-to-expected (O/E) index that measures taxonomic completeness. Together they provide multiple lines of evidence about the condition of a stream, providing greater confidence in results than a single index.

The California Stream Condition Index (CSCI): A New Statewide Biological Scoring Tool for Assessing the Health of Freshwater Streams

California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) | October 19th, 2015

California’s dramatic environmental diversity supports a broad array of natural stream types throughout the state. Bioassessment of freshwater stream and rivers is espe

California’s dramatic environmental diversity supports a broad array of natural stream types throughout the state. Bioassessment of freshwater stream and rivers is especially challenging in such a region because the reference condition, or the benchmark of biological condition expected when human disturbance in the environment is absent or minimal, varies greatly among natural stream types. Previous indices used by monitoring programs were developed on a regional basis to help partition the state’s environmental diversity, but statewide assessments were confounded by different criteria used in different regions. The CSCI, which translates complex data about individual benthic macroinvertebrates (BMIs) found living in a stream into an overall measure of stream health, was developed specifically to address some of the shortcomings of earlier indices. First, the CSCI was developed with a much larger, more representative data set that makes it applicable statewide and that covers the broad range of environmental variability among natural stream types. Second, the CSCI sets biological benchmarks for a site based on its site-specific environmental setting. Finally, the CSCI combines two separate types of indices, each of which provides unique information about the biological condition of a stream: a multi-metric index (MMI) that measures ecological structure and function, and an observed-to-expected (O/E) index that measures taxonomic completeness.  Together they provide multiple lines of evidence about the condition of a stream, providing greater confidence in results than a single index.

The California Water Atlas

Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR) | October 24th, 1979

This book sets out to tell the biggest story in the richest and most populous state in the Union. Water lies at the basis of the modern prosperity of California, and th

This book sets out to tell the biggest story in the richest and most populous state in the Union. Water lies at the basis of the modern prosperity of California, and the history of the state is in large part the history of water development. The problems of water supply and delivery for the future are emerging among the critical issues facing not only California but the entire American Southwest over the next ten years. And yet, at a time when environmental consciousness is high and complex problems of world energy supply and international finance are part of the normal fare in our daily newspapers, water remains probably the least popularly understood of our natural resources. For a higher resolution copy, click here to be taken to Digital Commons of California State University, Monterey Bay

The California water model: Resilience through failure

Hydrological Processes (Wiley) | March 21st, 2019

No earth resource is more abundant than water, but no other resources is more oversubscribed or a source of greater controversy. California, for example, generates an ave

No earth resource is more abundant than water, but no other resources is more oversubscribed or a source of greater controversy. California, for example, generates an average run-off of 100 km3/year, but the state's ecosystems and parts of its economy have been limited for decades with drought punctuated by years of exceptional rain or snowmelt and flooding. California has nonetheless managed to thrive, with 40 million people, agricultural production exceeding $45 billion/year, and the world's largest economy. Through droughts, floods, and constant tension between environmental protection and economic growth, California has evolved a diverse toolkit for managing its water. But ... is California's model of water management one of the world's greatest successes or instead a history of dismal failures?

The California Water Plan: Projected Use and Available Water Supplies to 2010

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | December 15th, 1983