Friant Water Authority vs. Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainibilty Agency

Superior Court of California, County of Tulare | February 15th, 2024

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

Friends of the Earth v. Coleman

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit | March 10th, 1975

Friends of the River v. Sites Project Authority

California Courts of Appeal, Third Appellate District | September 20th, 2024

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.

From crisis to connectivity: Renewed thinking about managing California’s water & food supply

California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply (CRWFS) | April 14th, 2014

Modern water management has largely focused on the near-term objectives of a particular user group, be it agriculture, urban, or environment. Over time, competing demands

Modern water management has largely focused on the near-term objectives of a particular user group, be it agriculture, urban, or environment. Over time, competing demands for our finite water resource has led to intractable water conflicts and a water infrastructure that is managed by a highly complex and fragmented network of local, state, and federal institutions. These institutional and water infrastructures abound with missing, broken, or dysfunctional connections between agricultural, urban, and environmental water users, creating negative impacts for all. Addressing these challenges requires a new and strategic approach that is based in understanding the whole system. Fortunately, a shift toward a whole-systems approach is already developing within a number of disciplines that inform water resource management, food supply systems, and environmental stewardship. In this report, From Crisis to Connectivity: Renewed Thinking about Managing California’s Water and Food Supply, the California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply (CRWFS) builds on this shift and identifies the concepts of connectivity and connected benefits: » Connectivity defines the relationships that link the individual parts of a system to form a whole. It recognizes that the actions of one component within a system have an impact, both on the other components of that same system, and upon other, linked systems. The connectivity approach uses this understanding to better align the interactions between human systems (i.e., engineered resource systems, cultural norms, and institutions) and ecosystems (i.e., climatic, chemical and biological systems, and natural resources). This approach proposes that human systems are a central subsystem of the larger ecosystems, rather than systems that exist apart from and only linked to ecosystems. The goal of this alignment is to more effectively design for, and simultaneously achieve, benefits for agricultural and urban users, while ensuring environmental restoration, protection, and stewardship. » The concept of connected benefits refers to achieving simultaneous benefits across all major water users. The idea of connected benefits builds on the positive historical trend from single to dual and multiple benefits that evolved as a way to respond to California’s increasing water management challenges. Based on our assessment of current needs and the patterns of disconnects, we have identified three initial high-priority areas in which we believe the connectivity approach can effect significant change in California’s food and water systems. Each high-priority area has several principles to help guide assessment of water and food issues, as well as design and implementation of solutions.

From Desert Wasteland to Agricultural Wonderland: The Story of Water and Power

Imperial Irrigation District (IID) | October 3rd, 1977

From past patterns to future potential: using historical ecology to inform river restoration on an intermittent California river

Landscape Ecology (Springer) | August 30th, 2015

Although human actions have greatly impacted the river’s extent, baseflow hydrology, and riparian habitats, many ecological attributes persist in more limited form, in

Although human actions have greatly impacted the river’s extent, baseflow hydrology, and riparian habitats, many ecological attributes persist in more limited form, in large part facilitated by these fundamental hydrogeological controls. By drawing on a heretofore untapped dataset of spatially explicit and long-term environmental data, these findings improve our understanding of the river’s historical and current conditions and allow the derivation of reach-differentiated restoration and management opportunities that take advantage of local potential.