Effective at Any Scale: Watershed-based Decision Support Tools

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | July 1st, 2016

EcoAtlas  tools apply the USEPA’s three-level wetland monitoring and assessment framework for wetland and stream protection in a variety of California watersheds, an

EcoAtlas  tools apply the USEPA’s three-level wetland monitoring and assessment framework for wetland and stream protection in a variety of California watersheds, and it can be adjusted to more generally support natural resource planning, assessment, monitoring, and reporting. EcoAtlas operationalizes the Wetland and Riparian Area Monitoring Plan (WRAMP) by enabling users to assess the abundance, distribution, diversity, and condition of wetlands in the landscape or watershed context.

Ending groundwater overdraft without affecting food security

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | June 14th, 2024

Enduring Solutions on the Colorado River

Arizona State University (ASU) | August 16th, 2024

As we work to reduce water use on the post-2026 Colorado River, two paths lie open before us. One is to incentivize conservation by giving water users the chance to bank

As we work to reduce water use on the post-2026 Colorado River, two paths lie open before us. One is to incentivize conservation by giving water users the chance to bank saved water for later use. Known most commonly as Intentionally Created Surplus (ICS), and more broadly in a series of increasingly creative implementations as “Assigned Water,” this creates short term savings. But in the long run, the approach entitles the users to take the water back out of thE bank. The other involves permanent reductions – “System Water.” Water use is reduced for the benefit of the Colorado River as a whole. Investment in Assigned Water, attractive to water managers because of the allure that they can get their water back, has crowded out investment in the more durable System Water reductions that will be needed to bring the Colorado River into balance. As we develop new operating rules for the river, we need to be mindful of the differences involved. Accounting for water as Assigned Water is a means to reduce total water use in the short-term but the basin requires a means to reduce total water use over the long-term. Enduring solutions on the river can only be found by addressing overallocation, which at its most basic means that there needs to be more unassigned water in Lake Mead. Click here for Part II

Enhancing the Vision for Managing California’s Environmental Information

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | July 1st, 2015

The Environmental Data Summit, convened under the auspices of the Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Science Program in June 2014, witnessed remarkable participation fro

The Environmental Data Summit, convened under the auspices of the Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Science Program in June 2014, witnessed remarkable participation from experts across California, the nation, and even the world. Summit attendees from the public, private, federal, and non-profit sectors shared their views regarding the urgent needs and proposed solutions for California’s data-sharing and data-integration challenges, especially pertaining to the subject of environmental resource management in the era of “big data.” After all, this is a time when our data sources are growing in number, size, and complexity. Yet our ability to manage and analyze such data in service of effective decision-making lags far behind our demonstrated needs. In its review of the sustainability of water and environmental management in the California Bay-Delta, the National Research Council (NRC) found that “only a synthetic, integrated, analytical approach to understanding the effects of suites of environmental factors (stressors) on the ecosystem and its components is likely to provide important insights that can lead to enhancement of the Delta and its species” (National Research Council 2012). The present “silos of data” have resulted in separate and compartmentalized science, impeding our ability to make informed decisions. While resolving data integration challenges will not, by itself, produce better science or better natural resource outcomes, progress in this area will provide a strong foundation for decision-making. Various mandates ranging from the California Water Action Plan to the President’s executive order demanding federal open data policies demonstrate the consensus on the merits of modern data sharing at the scale and function needed to meet today’s challenges. This white paper emerges from the Summit as an instrument to help identify such opportunities to enhance California’s cross-jurisdictional data management. As a resource to policymakers, agency leadership, data managers, and others, this paper articulates some key challenges as well as proven solutions that, with careful and thoughtful coordination, can be implemented to overcome those obstacles. Primarily featured are tools that complement the State’s current investments in technology, recognizing that success depends upon broad and motivated participation from all levels of the public agency domain. This document describes examples, practices, and recommendations that focus on California’s Delta as an opportune example likely to yield meaningful initial results in the face of pressing challenges.  Once proven in the Delta, however, this paper’s recommended innovations would conceivably be applied statewide in subsequent phases.

Envisioning Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) | January 25th, 2007

California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is widely perceived to be in crisis today: its levee system is fragile, many of its native species are declining rapidly, and

California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is widely perceived to be in crisis today: its levee system is fragile, many of its native species are declining rapidly, and it lacks strong governing institutions to deal with its problems. In its current state, the Delta is unsustainable for almost all stakeholders. This report provides a comprehensive, scientifically up-to-date analysis and outlines several alternative management strategies for the Delta.

Estimating Historical California Precipitation Phase Trends Using Gridded Precipitation, Precipitation Phase, and Elevation Data

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | July 18th, 2014

Climate change projections for California indicate reduction in the percentage of precipitation that falls as snow, and increase in the percentage that falls as rain, due

Climate change projections for California indicate reduction in the percentage of precipitation that falls as snow, and increase in the percentage that falls as rain, due to warmer temperatures in the future. Previous work has shown overall decreases in rainfall / snowfall ratios for the western US over the last 60 years. Of interest in this study is the quantification of snow/rain ratios for smaller regions, specifically in California. Estimating cumulative precipitation phase ratios for specific regions is difficult due to large differences in local precipitation. In California, the high relief of the surface topography makes such estimates particularly difficult. The low spatial resolution of suitable precipitation/snow water equivalent monitoring stations contributes to the difficulty in quantifying the trends for sub-state sized regions of interest in this study. The present exploratory study develops and describes a methodology that uses readily available research data sets to produce gridded estimates of historical rainfall as a fraction of total precipitation for areas comprising the major water-supply watersheds of California. Using this methodology, statistically significant increases in the ratio of annual liquid to total precipitation are seen for large areas in the northern part of the State and northern Sierra over the water year. No significant annual trends are seen for regions in the central and southern portions of the Sierra. Future work extending the analysis to distinct elevation ranges and seasonality would provide more refined conclusions.

Estuary News, August 2001

San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP) | August 15th, 2001

Estuary News, February 2008

San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP) | February 15th, 2008

Estuary News, June 1994

San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP) | June 15th, 1994

Estuary News, October 2001

San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP) | October 15th, 2001