Document Details

Implementing SGMA: Results from a Stakeholder Survey

Linda Estelí Méndez Barrientos, Mark Lubell, Darcy Bostic | August 26th, 2019


The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) of 2014 represents a historic transition to collective groundwater resource management and has the potential to significantly reduce groundwater overdraft in California. A total of 260 groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) recently formed to collectively manage groundwater resources in the 127 high and medium priority groundwater basins of the state. The simultaneous formation of hundreds of new governing agencies is an unprecedented institutional effort with very few examples to learn from. As GSAs move towards the design and deliberation of their groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs), assessments on the process up until now can directly inform development processes that are still taking place. This report summarizes the results from a state-wide survey that targeted SGMA participants.

Keywords

Groundwater Exchange, Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP), outreach and engagement, planning and management, science management, Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA)