Fixing the Delta: How Will We Pay for It?

Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) | August 4th, 2009

This report examines the question of how to pay for urgently needed investments in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. For years, stakeholders have been at odds over bene

This report examines the question of how to pay for urgently needed investments in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. For years, stakeholders have been at odds over beneficiary financing (charging those who use the water). But recent federal intervention to save endangered fish species and the decline of state and federal funding sources may finally break the impasse. This report situates the beneficiary payment debate in historical, legal, and political context. It also explores how this kind of financing might work for several “big ticket” items: water conveyance facilities, storage reservoirs, environmental mitigation, and levee improvements.

Fixing the Flawed Colorado River Compact

American Geophysical Union (AGU) | June 16th, 2023

Flame retardants and plastic additives in San Francisco Bay: Targeted monitoring of organophosphate esters and bisphenols

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | January 31st, 2020

Flexibility and intensity of global water use

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | June 3rd, 2019

Water stress is often evaluated by scarcity: the share of available water supply being consumed by humans. However, some consumptive uses of water are more or less flexib

Water stress is often evaluated by scarcity: the share of available water supply being consumed by humans. However, some consumptive uses of water are more or less flexible than others, depending on the costs or effects associated with their curtailment. Here, we estimate the share of global water consumption over the period 1980–2016 from the relatively inflexible demands of irrigating perennial crops, cooling thermal power plants, storing water in reservoirs and supplying basic water for humans and livestock. We then construct a water stress index that integrates the share of runoff being consumed (scarcity), the share of consumption in these inflexible categories (flexibility) and the historical variability of runoff weighted by storage capacity (variability), and use our index to evaluate the trends in water stress of global major river basins on six continents. We find that the 10% most stressed basins encompass ~19%, 19% and 35% of global population, thermal electricity generation and irrigated calorie production, respectively, and some of these basins also experience the largest increases in our identified stress indexes over the study period. Water consumption intensities (water used per unit of goods or service produced) vary by orders of magnitude across and within continents, with highly stressed basins in some cases characterized by high water consumption intensities. Our results thus point to targeted water mitigation opportunities (for example, relocating crops and switching cooling technologies) for highly stressed basins.

Flood Control System Status Report

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | December 12th, 2011

This Flood Control System Status Report (FCSSR) describes the current status (physical condition) of SPFC facilities at a systemwide level. DWR prepared the FCSSR to meet

This Flood Control System Status Report (FCSSR) describes the current status (physical condition) of SPFC facilities at a systemwide level. DWR prepared the FCSSR to meet the legislative requirements of California Water Code Section 9120, and to contribute to development of the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (CVFPP). The CVFPP will guide future State investments through projects to address identified problems in the SPFC. The FCSSR is primarily intended to present information on the physical condition of SPFC facilities, and to help guide future inspection, evaluation, reconstruction, and improvement of the facilities. Information contained in the FCSSR should not be used to predict how a levee orassociated facilities may perform in a specific flood event. More detailed information (such as additional geotechnical explorations and analyses at a greater frequency) would be necessary to meet other purposes, such as assessing whether a levee could be certified under Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) standards to provide base flood protection under the National Flood Insurance Program.

Flood Management in California

Water, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) | February 14th, 2012

California’s development and success have been shaped by its ability to manage floods. This management has varied over the history of California’s economic and p

California’s development and success have been shaped by its ability to manage floods. This management has varied over the history of California’s economic and political development and continues in various forms today. California will always have flood problems. A range of options are available to aid in flood management problems and have been used over time. These options can be contrasted with flood management elsewhere and the types of options used to manage other types of hazards in California, such as earthquakes, wildfires, and droughts. In the future, flood management in California will require greater reliance on local funding and leadership, reflecting diminished federal and state funding, with more effective state and federal guidance. Effective flood management will also tend to integrate flood management with actions to achieve environmental and other water supply objectives, both to gain revenues from a broader range of beneficiaries as well as to make more efficient use of land and water in a state where both are often scarce.

Flood Plain Information Mojave River (Vicinity of Victorville) San Bernardino County, California

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) | April 15th, 1969

Flood Plain Information, Montecito Streams, Vicinity of Montecito, Santa Barbara, California

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) | June 28th, 1974

Due to size, this file has been divided. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Due to size, this file has been divided. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Flood Risk and Management of California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Levee System

University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz) | September 15th, 2020

Flood Runoff in Relation to Water Vapor Transport by Atmospheric Rivers Over the Western United States, 1949–2015

American Geophysical Union (AGU) | November 29th, 2017

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) have a significant role in generating floods across the western United States. We analyze daily streamflow for water years 1949 to 2015 from 5,

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) have a significant role in generating floods across the western United States. We analyze daily streamflow for water years 1949 to 2015 from 5,477 gages in relation to watervapor transport by ARs using a 6 h chronology resolved to 2.5° latitude and longitude. The probability that an AR will generate 50 mm/d of runoff in a river on the Pacific Coast increases from 12% when daily mean water vapor transport, DVT, is greater than 300 kg m
1s
1to 54% when DVT>600 kg m
1s
1. Extreme runoff, represented by the 99th quantile of daily values, doubles from 80 mm/d at DVT = 300 kg m
1s
1to160 mm/d at DVT = 500 kg m
1s
1. Forecasts and predictions of water vapor transport by atmospheric rivers can support flood risk assessment and estimates of future flood frequencies and magnitude in the western United States.