Freshwater Scarcity

Annual Review of Environment and Resources (Annual Reviews) | October 24th, 2021

The availability and use of fresh water are critical for human health and for economic and ecosystem stability. But the growing mismatch between human demands and natur

The availability and use of fresh water are critical for human health and for economic and ecosystem stability. But the growing mismatch between human demands and natural freshwater availability is contributing to water scarcity, affecting industrial and agricultural production and a wide range of social, economic, and political problems, including poverty, deterioration of ecosystem health, and violent conflicts. Understanding and addressing different forms of water scarcity are vital for moving toward more sustainable management and use of fresh water. We provide here a review of concepts and definitions of water scarcity, metrics and indicators used to evaluate scarcity together with strategies for addressing and reducing the adverse consequences of water scarcity, including the development of alternative sources of water, improvements in water-use efficiency, and changes in systems of water management and planning.

Friant Division Central Valley Project

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) | January 4th, 1994

Water is life the cliché goes, but in California, the reality is water is power. The Eureka State is blessed with warm days and productive soil, but deprived of enough w

Water is life the cliché goes, but in California, the reality is water is power. The Eureka State is blessed with warm days and productive soil, but deprived of enough water to go around. The pursuit of the power conferred by the water flowing in its rivers, and bubbling up from underground, is a much more complicated part of the Central Valley Project (CVP) than authorization, design, and construction. An anomaly in the CVP's labyrinthine history, the Friant Division developed along lines similar to other Reclamation projects in the West. One of three original segments of the CVP, the Friant Division, is separate, simple in design, but has seen it share of the same kinds of controversy plaguing the rest of the project. In spite of the disputes Friant generated, of the top five agricultural producing counties in the nation, three -- Fresno, Tulare and Kern -- are watered by Friant Division facilities. The clear sky, fertile land, and dry air of the southern San Joaquin Valley provide the backdrop where great promises have been met and modest hopes destroyed all in order to create "the richest agricultural region in the history of the world."

Friant Water Supply Protection Association vs. Del Puerto Water District et al

Superior Court of California, County of Stanislaus | October 31st, 2022

Friant-Kern Canal Middle Reach Capacity Correction

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) | January 25th, 2022

From Climate Traces to Climate Insights: Future Scenarios Analysis for the California Central Valley

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | October 2nd, 2023

California Water Code Section 10004.6 requires the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to quantify current and future water conditions in the state. This infor

California Water Code Section 10004.6 requires the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to quantify current and future water conditions in the state. This information is published in the California Water Plan (Water Plan), which is updated every five years. Water managers and planners constantly face the challenges of planning for an uncertain future where the only constant is change. To address the potential future changes and mitigate the probable risks, water managers must consider and quantify uncertainties and their impacts on water system vulnerability. Although it is not possible to know for certain how population growth, land use decisions, climate, and other factors change over time, water planners must consider these system stressors in long-term planning to evaluate future risks and uncertainty. The Water Plan evaluates many alternative future scenarios as an integral part of its analytical approach to quantify system vulnerability under a range of population and urban growth scenarios, land use, and climate uncertainties.

From Climate-Change Spaghetti to Climate-Change Distributions for 21st Century California

University of California, Davis (UC Davis) | March 1st, 2005

The uncertainties associated with climate-change projections for California are unlikely to disappear anytime soon, and yet important long-term decisions will be needed t

The uncertainties associated with climate-change projections for California are unlikely to disappear anytime soon, and yet important long-term decisions will be needed to accommodate those potential changes. Projection uncertainties have typically been addressedby analysis of a few scenarios, chosen based on availability or to capture the extreme cases among available projections. However, by focusing on more com-mon projections rather than the most extreme projections (using a new resampling method), new insights into current projections emerge: (1) uncertainties associated with future greenhouse-gas emissions are comparable with the differences among climate models, so that neither source of uncertainties should be neglected or underrepresented; (2) twenty-first century temperature projections spread more, overall, than do precipitation scenarios; (3) projections of extremely wet futures for California are true outliers among current projections; and (4) current projections that are warmest tend, overall, to yield a moderately drier California, while the cooler projections yield a some-what wetter future. The resampling approach appliedin this paper also provides a natural opportunity to objectively incorporate measures of model skill and the likelihoods of various emission scenarios into future assessments.

Funding Opportunity for Voluntary Participation in the Lower Colorado Conservation and Efficiency Program

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) | October 12th, 2022

Funding Water in Times of Financial Uncertainty: The Case for a Public Goods Charge in California

Stanford University | January 15th, 2015

Funding for water-related public purpose projects has become increasingly scarce in California. Utilities are facing new challenges that require additional capital while

Funding for water-related public purpose projects has become increasingly scarce in California. Utilities are facing new challenges that require additional capital while the state’s legal system has restricted the ability of local governments to raise funds. This fiscal landscape requires the water sector to find new ways to finance water-related public interest projects, including conservation and efficiency programs, monitoring and evaluation, and infrastructure maintenance and modernization. California must also generate supplementary funds for new water technology research, development, and dissemination if the state is to continue to grow despite dwindling water supplies. In recent decades, California has relied heavily on general obligation (GO) bonds to finance a variety of water-related projects. GO bonds, however, are unreliable funding mechanisms as they require voter approval if they survive the legislative process, and they can be costly in the long run as they are repaid with interest. Additionally, GO bonds violate the beneficiary-pays principle as the entire state repays a debt that benefits taxpayers in certain regions more than others. This research paper looks at a supplemental funding mechanism, a Public Goods Charge (PGC), as an additional way for California to provide for water investment in the future. In a PGC scheme, ratepayers are charged a small, usage-related fee, and the funds are subsequently allocated to public interest projects at the local, utility, state, and broader scales. This method was used to fund electricity public purpose programs in California from 1998-2011, resulting in over $5.8 billion collected by the state’s three main Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs), with additional funds collected by local Publicly Owned Utilities (POUs), for energy innovation over 14 years. Utilities and the state as a whole benefitted economically and environmentally from the increased funding for energy efficiency, renewables, and research and development. The electricity PGC helped to transform California’s energy landscape into one that includes more modern and sustainable infrastructure systems. Significant energy savings were also achieved during the PGC era.

Future Changes in Global Atmospheric Rivers Projected by CMIP6 Models

American Geophysical Union (AGU) | January 31st, 2024

Future dryness in the southwest US and the hydrology of the early 21st century drought

National Academy of Sciences (NAS) | December 14th, 2010

Recently the Southwest has experienced a spate of dryness, which presents a challenge to the sustainability of current water use by human and natural systems in

Recently the Southwest has experienced a spate of dryness, which presents a challenge to the sustainability of current water use by human and natural systems in the region. In the Colorado River Basin, the early 21st century drought has been the most extreme in over a century of Colorado River flows, and might occur in any given century with probability of only 60%. However, hydrological model runs from downscaled Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment climate change simulations suggest that the region is likely to become drier and experience more severe droughts than this. In the latter half of the 21st century the models produced considerably greater drought activity, parti- cularly in the Colorado River Basin, as judged from soil moisture anomalies and other hydrological measures. As in the historical record, most of the simulated extreme droughts build up and per- sist over many years. Durations of depleted soil moisture over the historical record ranged from 4 to 10 years, but in the 21st century simulations, some of the dry events persisted for 12 years or more. Summers during the observed early 21st century drought were re- markably warm, a feature also evident in many simulated droughts of the 21st century. These severe future droughts are aggravated by enhanced, globally warmed temperatures that reduce spring snowpack and late spring and summer soil moisture. As the climate continues to warm and soil moisture deficits accumulate beyond historical levels, the model simulations suggest that sustaining water supplies in parts of the Southwest will be a challenge.