Broadening understandings of drought: the climate vulnerability of farmworkers and rural communities in California (USA)

Environmental Science & Policy (Elsevier) | November 1st, 2018

The vulnerability of food and agricultural systems to climate variability and change is extensively studied. However, the vulnerability of agricultural labor is largely

The vulnerability of food and agricultural systems to climate variability and change is extensively studied. However, the vulnerability of agricultural labor is largely ignored in climate vulnerability and adaptation studies, especially in the context of developed countries. This research examines the drought vulnerability of farmworkers both in the fields and in their communities by analyzing how changes in water resources and agricultural practices impact socioeconomic drought. A combination of surveys and semi-structured interviews with farmworkers, farmers, and social service providers in California’s San Joaquin Valley is used to identify the impacts of drought on agricultural labor, water security, food security, and health. Findings demonstrate that drought impacts and vulnerabilities are multi-scalar and uneven. Agricultural drought adaptations, including increase in groundwater pumping and changes in crops, reshapes the vulnerability of farmworkers and rural communities. There is a need for continued interdisciplinary research on the socioeconomic dimensions of drought as well as increased representation of needs and vulnerabilities of farmworkers and rural communities in drought and climate change adaptation planning.

Building Ecological Resilience in Highly Modified Landscapes

Oxford University Press (OUP) | November 7th, 2018

Ecological resilience is a powerful heuristic for ecosystem management in the context of rapid environmental change. Significant efforts are underway to improve

Ecological resilience is a powerful heuristic for ecosystem management in the context of rapid environmental change. Significant efforts are underway to improve the resilience of biodiversity and ecological function to extreme events and directional change across all types of landscapes, from intact natural systems to highly modified landscapes such as cities and agricultural regions. However, identifying management strategies likely to promote ecological resilience remains a challenge. In this article, we present seven core dimensions to guide long-term and large-scale resilience planning in highly modified landscapes, with the objective of providing a structure and shared vocabulary for recognizing opportunities and actions likely to increase resilience across the whole landscape. We illustrate application of our approach to landscape-scale ecosystem management through case studies from two highly modified California landscapes, Silicon Valley and the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. We propose that resilience-based management is best implemented at large spatial scales and through collaborative, cross-sector partnerships.

Building water resilience in the face of cascading wildfire risks

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) | September 15th, 2023

California against the sea

Los Angeles Times | July 7th, 2019

THE CALIFORNIA COAST GREW AND PROSPERED during a remarkable moment in history when the sea was at its tamest. But the mighty Pacific, unbeknownst to all, was nearing i

THE CALIFORNIA COAST GREW AND PROSPERED during a remarkable moment in history when the sea was at its tamest. But the mighty Pacific, unbeknownst to all, was nearing its final years of a calm but unusual cycle that had lulled dreaming settlers into a false sense of endless summer. Elsewhere, Miami has been drowning, Louisiana shrinking, North Carolina’s beaches disappearing like a time lapse with no ending. While other regions grappled with destructive waves and rising seas, the West Coast for decades was spared by a rare confluence of favorable winds and cooler water. This “sea level rise suppression,” as scientists call it, went largely undetected. Blinded from the consequences of a warming planet, Californians kept building right to the water’s edge. But lines in the sand are meant to shift. In the last 100 years, the sea rose less than 9 inches in California. By the end of this century, the surge could be greater than 9 feet.

California Climate Adaptation Strategy (2009)

California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) | December 1st, 2009

Climate change is already affecting California. Sea levels have risen by as much as seven inches along the California coast over the last century, increasing erosion and

Climate change is already affecting California. Sea levels have risen by as much as seven inches along the California coast over the last century, increasing erosion and pressure on the state’s infrastructure, water supplies, and natural resources. The state has also seen increased average temperatures, more extreme hot days, fewer cold nights, a lengthening of the growing season, shifts in the water cycle with less winter precipitation falling as snow, and both snowmelt and rainwater running off sooner in the year. These climate driven changes affect resources critical to the health and prosperity of California. For example, forest wildland fires are becoming more frequent and intense due to dry seasons that start earlier and end later. The state’s water supply, already stressed under current demands and expected population growth, will shrink under even the most conservative climate change scenario. Almost half a million Californians, many without the means to adjust to expected impacts, will be at risk from sea level rise along bay and coastal areas. California’s infrastructure is already stressed and will face additional burdens from climate risks. And as the Central Valley becomes more urbanized, more people will be at risk from intense heat waves.

California Climate Science and Data for Water Resources Management

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | July 6th, 2015

Climate change creates critical challenges for California water resources management. The vulnerability of the water sector to climate change stems from a modified hydrol

Climate change creates critical challenges for California water resources management. The vulnerability of the water sector to climate change stems from a modified hydrology that affects the frequency, magnitude, and duration of extreme events, which, in turn, affect water quantity, quality, and infrastructure. Warmer temperatures drive the snow line higher and reduce snowpack, resulting in less water storage. Intense rainfall events will continue to affect the state, possibly leading to more frequent and/or more extensive flooding. The acceleration of sea level rise will produce higher storm surges during coastal storms. Droughts are likely to become more frequent and persistent during this century. Because California contains multiple climate zones, each region of the state will experience a combination of impacts from climate change unique to that area. While significant uncertainties still remain for local precipitation and temperature changes, projections at the regional and statewide levels are already available. Water supply managers in California have multiple tools and institutional capabilities to limit vulnerability to changing conditions, which can also serve as response mechanisms to a wide range of climate changes. This brochure summarizes the observations, projections, and challenges that climate change poses for water resources management in California, and highlights climate change content developed for the California Water Plan Update 2013.

California Department of Water Plan 2023: Navigating Climate Challenges with Equity and Resilience

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | September 20th, 2023

The California Water Plan (Water Plan), updated every five years, is the State’s strategic plan for sustainably and equitably managing, developing, and stewarding water

The California Water Plan (Water Plan), updated every five years, is the State’s strategic plan for sustainably and equitably managing, developing, and stewarding water resources. Required by Water Code Section 10005, the plan presents the status and trends of California’s water-dependent natural resources; water supplies; and agricultural, urban, and environmental water demands for a range of plausible future scenarios.

California Department of Water Resources Baseline Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory 1990

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | October 12th, 2012

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) provides water management and planning services for the State of California. DWR is located within the California Natur

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) provides water management and planning services for the State of California. DWR is located within the California Natural Resources Agency. DWR’s operations include ownership, operation, and maintenance of the State Water Project (SWP), operations and maintenance of flood protection facilities throughout the Central Valley, administration of several grant programs which dispense state funds to local and regional water authorities, and regulatory authority over dam safety throughout California. This baseline greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory has been developed to supplement information provided in DWR’s Climate Action Plan Phase I: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Plan (GGERP) (http://www.water.ca.gov/climatechange/CAP.cfm). The GGERP documents DWR’s historical, current, and projected future GHG emissions, establishes and articulates GHG emissions reduction goals for 2020 and 2050, and describes the GHG emissions reduction measures that DWR will implement to achieve those goals. In the GGERP, GHG emissions are broken up into four categories: Operation, Construction, Maintenance, and Business Activities. Emissions are broken up in this way because they relate to key distinctions in the way activities are managed within DWR and the ways in which GHG emissions reduction measures can be implemented within DWR’s existing organizational structure. This inventory is organized to comply with the GHG Protocol? Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard developed by the World Resources Institute and World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Therefore, this inventory accounts for GHG emissions from DWR activities under the categories of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. The information in this inventory is consistent with the information provided in the GGERP, uses the same base data, and only differs in the ways in which the data are categorized and summed.

California forest die-off linked to multi-year deep soil drying in 2012–2015 drought

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | July 1st, 2019

Widespread episodes of recent forest die-off have been tied to the occurrence of anomalously warm droughts, although the underlying mechanisms remain inadequately

Widespread episodes of recent forest die-off have been tied to the occurrence of anomalously warm droughts, although the underlying mechanisms remain inadequately understood. California’s 2012–2015 drought, with exceptionally low precipitation and warmth, and widespread conifer death, provides an opportunity to explore the chain of events leading to forest die-off. Here, we present the spatial and temporal patterns of die-off and moisture deficit during California’s drought, based on field and remote sensing observations. We found that die-off was closely tied to multi-year deep-rooting-zone drying, and that this relationship provides a framework with which to diagnose and predict mortality. Marked tree death in an intensively studied Sierra Nevada forest followed a four-year moisture overdraft, with cumulative 2012–2015 evapotranspiration exceeding precipitation by ~1,500 mm, and subsurface moisture exhaustion to 5–15-m depth. Observations across the entire Sierra Nevada further linked tree death to deep drying, with die-off and moisture overdraft covarying across latitude and elevation. Unusually dense vegetation and warm temperatures accelerated southern Sierran evapotranspiration in 2012–2015, intensifying overdraft and compounding die-off by an estimated 55%. Climate change is expected to further amplify evapotranspiration and moisture overdraft during drought, potentially increasing Sierran tree death during drought by ~15–20% °C−1.

California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future: Restoring Aquatic Ecosystems in the Age of Climate Change

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) | January 20th, 2024

The infrastructure built generations ago in California continues to limit salmon migration, and some dams that remain on the landscape are well beyond their useful life.

The infrastructure built generations ago in California continues to limit salmon migration, and some dams that remain on the landscape are well beyond their useful life. In the Central Valley, large dams were built starting in the early 1900s on almost all major rivers. Those dams now block salmon access to over 90 percent of their historical spawning and rearing habitat higher in mountain streams.