EcoAtlas - Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program: Tool Integration White Paper

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

EcoAtlas: Enhancing Regional Capacity for Habitat Restoration Project Tracking, Assessment and Reporting

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

This project consolidates information from a variety of existing datasets to signicantLly expand the project tracking functionality in EcoAtlas to include hundreds of h

This project consolidates information from a variety of existing datasets to signicantLly expand the project tracking functionality in EcoAtlas to include hundreds of habitat protection, enhancement, and restoration projects throughout the Central Valley and San Francisco Bay-Delta regions. The Project Tracker database has been redesigned to better accommodate detailed project information such as acres of distinct habitat types, species benefitted, progress and status, and funding sources. Additional functionality was added to enhance visual displays and queries of the tabular and spatial project data. As new projects are developed and existing projects enter new phases, information can be expanded and updated through the new online data entry forms. Additional spatial data layers such as “Modern Delta Habitat Types” allow users to evaluate projects within the context of existing ecological resources and other landscape characteristics and uses. Additional data, querying and mapping functionality will allow for improved analyses of changes in habitat extent, landscape-scale conservation planning, evaluation of progress towards meeting conservation objectives, and partnership building. By providing the tools needed to track and analyze landscape change, we will improve our ability to strategically conserve important habitats in the future.

Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration: Environmental Flows for Regional Water Management

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | March 20th, 2008

Worldwide, water conflicts are escalating as cities, industries, agriculture, and energy producers compete for limited freshwater supplies. At the same time, there is a g

Worldwide, water conflicts are escalating as cities, industries, agriculture, and energy producers compete for limited freshwater supplies. At the same time, there is a growing awareness of the need to maintain adequate freshwater flows in rivers, lakes, floodplains, aquifers, and estuaries to sustain biodiversity and the many benefits derived from the healthy, functioning ecosystems upon which local communities and economies depend. Efficient, integrated water resource management systems help  governments provide for growing human populations while protecting and restoring healthy freshwater ecosystems. The integration of ecological considerations into water management has been hampered by the difficulty, cost, and time required for determining environmental flows -- the quantity, timing, and quality of water flows required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems and the human livelihoods and well-being that depend on these ecosystems.  Environmental flow assessments scientifically evaluate tradeoffs between alteration of natural water flow patterns by humans and consequent changes in ecological health.

Economic Analysis Guidebook

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | December 2nd, 2016

Because of its considerable water management partnerships with the federal government, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) has a policy that all economic analyses con

Because of its considerable water management partnerships with the federal government, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) has a policy that all economic analyses conducted for its internal use on programs and projects be fundamentally consistent with the federal Economics and Environmental Principles and Guidelines for Water and Related Land Resources Implementation Studies (P&G), which was adopted by the US Water Resources Council on March 10, 1983. The P&G set forth principles “…intended to ensure proper and consistent planning by federal agencies in the formulation and evaluation of water and related land resources implementation studies…” and guidelines that “…establish standards and procedures for use by federal agencies in formulating and evaluating alternative plans for water and related land resources implementation studies.” It is also DWR policy to adopt, maintain, and periodically update its own Economics Analysis Guidebook, which is consistent with the P&G but can also incorporate innovative methods and tools when appropriate. This policy is necessary because (a) the P&G has not been updated for more than 20 years, (b) federal and State economic analyses sometimes have different regional analysis perspectives, and (c) water management projects and programs have become more complex. The Economics Analysis Guidebook (Guidebook) was developed to assist DWR economists in performing economic analyses and, more importantly, to explain economics concepts, methods, and tools to non-economist staff, program managers, and management within DWR. This Guidebook should be used in conjunction with the federal P&G in the preparation of project feasibility and socioeconomic impact analyses. If DWR is partnering with a federal agency during the preparation of a feasibility study, then the P&G will have precedence over this Guidebook in determining the federal National Economic Development Plan. However, this Guidebook may help DWR identify a “Locally Preferred Plan” that is preferable from a State or local perspective rather than a National Economic Development Plan, which otherwise might have been implemented with strict adherence to the P&G. The Economics Analysis Guidebook discusses the following topics: • Federal and State Economic Analysis Guidelines • Economic Analysis Methods • Ecosystem Valuation Methods • Economic Analysis Models • Economic Analysis and the Federal Planning Process • Financial Analysis

Economic and Environmental Implications of California Crop and Livestock, Adaptation to Climate Change

California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) | August 27th, 2018

Economic and Water Supply Effects of Ending Groundwater Overdraft in California's Central Valley

University of California, Davis (UC Davis) | March 1st, 2016

Surface water and groundwater management are often tightly linked, even when linkage is not intended or expected. This link is especially common in semi-arid regions, suc

Surface water and groundwater management are often tightly linked, even when linkage is not intended or expected. This link is especially common in semi-arid regions, such as California. This paper summarizes a modeling study on the effects of ending long-term overdraft in California’s Central Valley, the state’s largest aquifer system. The study focuses on economic and operational aspects, such as surface water pumping and diversions, groundwater recharge, water scarcity, and the associated operating and water scarcity costs. This analysis uses CALVIN, a hydro-economic optimization model for California’s water resource system that suggests operational changes to minimize net system costs for a given set of conditions, such as ending long-term overdraft. Based on model results, ending overdraft might induce some major statewide operational changes, including large increases to Delta exports, more intensive conjunctive-use operations with increasing artificial and in-lieu recharge, and greater water scarcity for Central Valley agriculture. The statewide costs of ending roughly 1.2 maf yr of groundwater overdraft are at least $50 million per year from additional direct water shortage and additional operating costs. At its worst, the costs of ending Central Valley overdraft could be much higher, perhaps comparable to the recent economic effects of drought. Driven by recent state legislation to improve groundwater sustainability, ending groundwater overdraft has important implications statewide for water use and management, particularly in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. Ending Central Valley overdraft will amplify economic pressure to increase Delta water exports rather than reduce them, tying together two of California’s largest water management problems.

Economic Productivity of California Water

Pacific Institute | October 22nd, 2004

This short summary presents information on total employment, total revenues/income, and total water use in California for various industrial and commercial sectors, using

This short summary presents information on total employment, total revenues/income, and total water use in California for various industrial and commercial sectors, using data through 2004. Far more detailed information, data, and analysis are available from the Pacific Institute and complete data sources are listed at the end of this memo. There are gross disparities in the “economic productivity” of water use. Even modest reallocations of water from one sector of our economy to another can produce significant changes in job availability and gross state product, but such reallocations must take account of regional economic priorities, job displacement and retraining issues, equity, and environmental side-effects. The data in this analysis suggest that carefully tailored water and business strategies, however, can lead to substantial benefits for California’s economy, job picture, and agricultural production.

Economic Sustainability Plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

Delta Protection Commission (DPC) | July 19th, 2012

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is a unique place of economic, environmental, historic, and cultural significance. The land and water resources of the Delta suppor

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is a unique place of economic, environmental, historic, and cultural significance. The land and water resources of the Delta support significant agricultural and recreation economies, and the Delta also has an important role as an infrastructure hub for water, energy, and transportation. The region’s rich history boasts of bustling, river-based commerce before the automobile age, and its cultural uniqueness includes the only rural town in America build by early Chinese immigrants. As the largest estuary on the west coast of the Americas, the Delta also is a place of striking natural beauty and ecological significance that is struggling with serious environmental degradation problems. Although surrounded by growing cities, the Delta remains a highly-productive agricultural area with rural charms, landscapes, and waterscapes not found elsewhere in California. In recent years, there has been great concern over increasing environmental degradation in the Delta and over court decisions that reduced the quantity of water delivered to southern California through the state and federal water project intakes in the south Delta to protect endangered fish. Combined with additional concerns about the stability of the Delta’s levee system, these concerns led the California legislature to pass the Delta Reform Act of 2009. The Act created the Delta Stewardship Council and charged it with developing a Delta Plan to achieve the coequal goals of “providing a more reliable water supply for California and protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem.” Recognizing the potential impact of the Delta Plan on the people and economy of the Delta, the Delta Reform Act stated that the coequal goals of water supply reliability and restoring the Delta ecosystem “shall be achieved in a manner that protects and enhances the unique cultural, recreational, natural resource, and agricultural values of the Delta as an evolving place.” Among the measures to address this goal, the Delta Protection Commission was tasked with developing this Economic Sustainability Plan to inform the Delta Stewardship Council’s development of the Delta Plan. The Legislature established the following guidelines for the Economic Sustainability Plan in the Delta Reform Act of 2009: "The economic sustainability plan shall include information and recommendations that inform the Delta Stewardship Council’s policies regarding the socioeconomic sustainability of the Delta region. (b) The economic sustainability plan shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following: 1) Public safety recommendations, such as flood protection recommendations. 2) The economic goals, policies, and objectives in local general plans and other local economic efforts, including recommendations on continued socioeconomic sustainability of agriculture and its infrastructure and legacy communities in the Delta. 3) Comments and recommendations to the Department of Water Resources concerning its periodic update of the flood management plan for the Delta. 4) Identification of ways to encourage recreational investment along the key river corridors, as appropriate. Since a key purpose of this Economic Sustainability Plan is to inform the Delta Plan under development by the Delta Stewardship Council, this report analyzes the impact of key policies being considered for the plan on the economic sustainability of the Delta. Many of the most significant proposals for the Delta are being developed in the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). The policy proposals can be grouped into four categories: 1) water conveyance, 2) habitat creation, 3) levees, and 4) land use regulation. The report also considers many aspects of economic sustainability in the Delta that are unrelated to these water policy proposals including economic development recommendations in the 2008 Delta Vision Strategic Plan.

Economics of a State Water Resources Program

Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) | July 9th, 1957

Economies of Scale and Scope in River Basin Management

Pacific Institute | November 15th, 2004

New approaches to water planning, like Integrated Water Resources Management, are growing in popularity, but have often gotten bogged down, or even been abandoned, becaus

New approaches to water planning, like Integrated Water Resources Management, are growing in popularity, but have often gotten bogged down, or even been abandoned, because stakeholders don’t feel they are getting enough out of these efforts. Economies of scale and scope are the payoff for the tedious, time-consuming work of multi-stakeholder processes and our new report, “Economies of Scale and Scope in River Basin Management,” provides pragmatic guidance for more effective water management. It argues that the river basin management component of an effective management system should identify specifically how and when collaboration between specialized organizations will be socially beneficial, and then mobilize sufficient political will to ensure specialized organizations collaborate when they should. The economic insight this paper offers is that collaboration between specialized agencies is socially desirable when economies of scale or scope exist that cannot be captured by any one specialized organization. Successful integration occurs when these economies are identified and captured, and when more specialized organizations are allowed to manage projects that do not involve such economies. This paper defines economies of scale and scope, describes economies of scope in more detail since this is a phrase that non-economists are unfamiliar with, provides a few examples of each in the US setting, and provides some concluding remarks on implementation challenges.