Stakeholder Engagement Guide For Nature-Based Solutions

Pacific Institute | November 14th, 2022

Effective stakeholder engagement is paramount to the long-term success of any nature-based solutions (NBS) project. Drawing from a range of expert sources, this guide off

Effective stakeholder engagement is paramount to the long-term success of any nature-based solutions (NBS) project. Drawing from a range of expert sources, this guide offers accessible and clear guidelines for broad stakeholder engagement, highlighting the diverse global contexts of NBS and identifying key principles and practical steps for incorporating stakeholders into projects. This guide aims to promote inclusive, equitable and even reciprocal relationships for the benefit of both the organizations investing in NBS and the stakeholders and communities who have a role to play or are impacted by an NBS project. This guide can be used to support greater community buy-in for NBS projects, the integration of local knowledge into all stages of an NBS project and organizational efforts to operate from a human rights-based approach, as well as enable local communities potentially most impacted by an NBS project to be part of the decision-making process. This inclusion and integration can afford NBS projects a greater chance of success and sustainability. This guide takes a pragmatic approach to stakeholder engagement by presenting general principles and best practices that should be considered throughout all stages of an NBS project, as well as outlining specific steps for incorporating stakeholder engagement throughout NBS project stages. The identified principles and best practices include engaging a diverse range of stakeholders; building long-term relationships and trust; communicating with empathy; prioritizing transparency and accountability; co-creating rather than imposing; recognizing mutual benefits; removing barriers to engagement; formalizing relationships; ensuring adequate financial support; and appointing well-trained, knowledgeable facilitators. NBS project stages, and subsequent steps for stakeholder engagement, are outlined on the next page. Note that each NBS project is unique, with varying locations, activities, and involved players. Even though the guide is structured around specific NBS project stages and steps, the way that a specific project carries forward stakeholder engagement is likely to vary.

Stakeholder Perspectives: Recommendations for Sustaining and Strengthening Integrated Regional Water Management

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | ?

Integrated regional water management (IRWM) is the application of integrated water management principles at the regional level. IRWM brings local agencies and other stak

Integrated regional water management (IRWM) is the application of integrated water management principles at the regional level. IRWM brings local agencies and other stakeholders, with a range of water-related roles and interests, together to address water management needs collaboratively within self-identified regions accepted by the State. The practice of IRWM is rooted in the principle of regional control, recognizing that local and regional water managers and other stakeholders, working together in a collaborative, open, and transparent manner, are best suited and best positioned to manage water resources in their regions. Issues including limited groundwater and surface water supplies, drought, flooding, climate change, water quality, environmental degradation, aging infrastructure, economic constraints, recreation, and cultural considerations are addressed through coordinated and integrated actions.

Standardized Regulatory Impact Assessment of Proposed Making Conservation a California Way of Life Regulation

California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) | June 21st, 2024

Water conservation in California overall, due to the proposed regulation and other conservation efforts by water suppliers and Californians generally, plus passive conser

Water conservation in California overall, due to the proposed regulation and other conservation efforts by water suppliers and Californians generally, plus passive conservation from prior conservation efforts, is estimated to save levels of water consistent with the goal mentioned in the Water Supply Strategy of the reduction of the water demand of towns and cities by half a million acre-feet per year. The proposed regulation serves as a backstop that is expected to cause new savings and “lock in” these other savings. As shown in the graph below, staff estimated that the proposed regulation would save approximately 30,000 acre-feet of water in 2027 (compared to the assumed 2027 baseline water use) and increased amounts in subsequent years, reaching almost 235,000 acre-feet of water in 2050 (compared to the assumed 2050 baseline water use). The total cumulative amount of water savings in the 2025-2050 period would be approximately 3.9 million acre-feet. More than half of the estimated water savings (approximately 52 percent) would come from the assumed residential water conservation measures, and the remainder (approximately 48 percent) from CII (Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional) performance measures.

State and green crimes related to water pollution and ecological disorganization: water pollution from publicly owned treatment works (POTW) facilities across US states

Palgrave Communications | August 1st, 2017

Green criminologists often refer to water pollution as an example of a green crime, but have yet to produce much research on this subject. The current article addresses�

Green criminologists often refer to water pollution as an example of a green crime, but have yet to produce much research on this subject. The current article addresses the need for green criminological analyses of water pollution problems, and draws attention to an overlooked issue: water pollution emissions from state owned public water treatment facilities or POTWs. Legally, POTWs may emit certain quantities and kinds of pollutants to waterways following treatment. This does not mean, however, that those emissions have no adverse ecological or public health impacts, or that those emissions cannot also be employed as examples of green crimes or green-state crimes. Indeed, from the perspective of environmental sociology and ecological Marxism, those emissions generate ecological disorganization. Moreover, POTW emissions contain numerous pollutants that generate different forms of ecological disorganization. The current study uses POTW emissions data drawn from the US EPA’s Discharge Monitoring Report system for 2014 to illustrate the extent of pollution emitted by POTWs in and across US states as one dimension of ecological disorganization. To contextualize the meaning of those data, we review US water pollution regulations, review the health and ecological impacts of chemicals emitted by POTWs, and situate those emissions within green criminological discussions of green crime and greenstate crimes.

State Climate Policy and Nature-based Solutions: A Match that Provides Multiple Benefits for Climate, Water, and More

Stanford University | August 17th, 2022

This report examines potential synergies between state climate policies and nature-based solutions that yield multiple benefits; outlines barriers to meeting that potenti

This report examines potential synergies between state climate policies and nature-based solutions that yield multiple benefits; outlines barriers to meeting that potential; and provides recommendations to accelerate the implementation of nature- based solutions with water benefits in state climate policies. It is not meant to be exhaustive, but to point out areas for further productive work. The audience is non-climate water practitioners working in the Colorado River Basin and state climate policy practitioners who may not be familiar with the opportunities nature-based solutions (NBS) provide for both climate and water. As a result, the report can be considered something of a primer or resource, including basic information about both fields to educate water practitioners as to what state climate plans entail, and to educate climate practitioners about the opportunity to include (and the necessity of including) NBS as part of their climate planning. The report’s intent is to illuminate an area where further engagement and technical work can help seize an opportunity to meet the climate and water challenges facing the Colorado River Basin states.

State Investments in Delta Levees

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | January 1st, 2015

This 43-page Issue Paper, authored by Dustin Jones, the Council's Integrated Regional Water Management Supervising Engineer, is entitled State Investments in Delta Levees

This 43-page Issue Paper, authored by Dustin Jones, the Council's Integrated Regional Water Management Supervising Engineer, is entitled State Investments in Delta Levees, Key Issues for Updating Priorities. The Delta Reform Act requires that the Delta Plan promote strategic levee investments that attempt to reduce risks to people, property, and state interests in the Delta (Water Code section 85305) and recommend priorities for state investment in levee operation, maintenance, and improvements in the Delta (Water Code section 85306). In addition, the Delta Plan may identify actions to be taken outside of the Delta, if those actions are determined to significantly reduce flood risks in the Delta and may include local plans of flood protection (Water Code section 85307(a-b)). This paper outlines 15 issues that will need to be considered as the Council updates the Delta Plan’s provisions regarding State investment in the Delta’s levees. It summarizes background information about these issues, provides references for further information, and highlights key points to be addressed through the development of the Delta Levees Investment Strategy.

State Investments in Delta Levees: Key Issues For Updating Priorities

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | January 9th, 2015

This paper outlines 15 issues that will need to be considered as the Council updates the Delta Plan’s 36 provisions regarding State investment in the Delta’s levees.

This paper outlines 15 issues that will need to be considered as the Council updates the Delta Plan’s 36 provisions regarding State investment in the Delta’s levees. It summarizes background information 37 about these issues, provides references for further information, and highlights key points that will need 38 to be addressed over the coming months.

State of Bay Delta Science 2016: Introduction

University of California, Davis (UC Davis) | July 1st, 2016

The first edition of SBDS presented seven shifts in perspective or changes in the way that scientists understood the Delta and water supply that had emerged in the decade

The first edition of SBDS presented seven shifts in perspective or changes in the way that scientists understood the Delta and water supply that had emerged in the decade before its publication (Healey et al. 2008). These changes in scientific understanding have profoundly affected the long-term vision for the Delta and the way that it is managed (Delta Vision Task Force 2008; Delta Stewardship Council 2010). A similar evolution in understanding has emerged in the eight years since publication of the first edition of SBDS, and we expect our understanding of the Delta and California water will continue to evolve and change as new studies are conducted. SBDS will be a living document, updated from time to time as sufficient new findings accumulate and, in particular, as the effects of climate change become more apparent. Meeting the new and unprecedented challenges to water supply and ecosystem conservation that climate change will bring will require both an intensification of scientific effort and much better coordination and planning of Delta science. The papers that make up the second edition of SBDS represent one step toward an integrated and policy-relevant compilation of science in the Delta.

State of California Department of Natural Resources Division of Fish and Game Thirtieth Biennial Report 1926-1928

State of California | September 30th, 1928

State of California Department of Natural Resources Division of Fish and Game Thirty-Fifth Biennial Report for the Years 1936-1938

State of California | September 1st, 1938