Pure Water Southern California

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) | March 29th, 2024

Putting Adaptive Management into Practice: Incorporating Quantitative Metrics into Sustainable Groundwater Management

Stanford University | March 4th, 2019

Groundwater is a critical resource in California, serving as a reserve during droughts that are expected to be increasingly frequent and severe as climate change progres

Groundwater is a critical resource in California, serving as a reserve during droughts that are expected to be increasingly frequent and severe as climate change progresses. Adaptive management – revising management practices based on monitoring of progress toward pre-established quantitative metrics of performance – is widely viewed as an effective approach to managing water and other natural resources under conditions of uncertainty. However, linking performance metrics effectively with decision-making processes is often challenging, requiring careful consideration of institutional factors that may limit an agency’s ability to act based on new information. Governance arrangements that enable adaptive management must balance the need for flexibility as conditions change with a preference among water users for stable rules. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) of 2014 – California’s first statewide framework for managing groundwater – incorporates many elements of adaptive management, including requirements to manage groundwater according to quantitative metrics of performance. Under regulations guiding the development of Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs), newly formed Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) must define measurable objectives, minimum thresholds and interim milestones to eliminate six “undesirable results” by 2040 or 2042, depending upon the basin. Yet, the creation of these metrics alone will be insufficient to achieve sustainable management of California’s groundwater; institutional arrangements must support their use to guide management actions. To provide insight into the design and use of metrics as guides to decision-making, this report draws upon the experiences of four special act districts that had authority to manage groundwater prior to SGMA. These include two primarily urban water agencies, Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) and Zone 7 Water Agency (Zone 7) and two agencies with significant pumping for agricultural use, Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency (FCGMA) and Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PVWMA). This report analyzes how these agencies used quantitative metrics in their groundwater management plans prior to SGMA and identifies institutional factors that constrained or enabled the adjustment of management actions in response to changing conditions during the 2012-2016 drought. Although the metrics employed by these agencies differ from those required under GSP regulations, these agencies’ experiences still offer important insights for GSAs seeking to develop metrics and integrate them into decision making.

Rapid emergence of climate change in environmental drivers of marine ecosystems

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | March 7th, 2017

Climate change is expected to modify ecological responses in the ocean, with the potential for important effects on the ecosystem services provided to humankind

Climate change is expected to modify ecological responses in the ocean, with the potential for important effects on the ecosystem services provided to humankind. Here we address the question of how rapidly multiple drivers of marine ecosystem change develop in the future ocean. By analysing an ensemble of models we find that, within the next 15 years, the climate change-driven trends in multiple ecosystem drivers emerge from the background of natural variability in 55% of the ocean and propagate rapidly to encompass 86% of the ocean by 2050 under a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario. However, we also demonstrate that the exposure of marine ecosystems to climate change-induced stress can be drastically reduced via climate mitigation measures; with mitigation, the proportion of ocean susceptible to multiple drivers within the next 15 years is reduced to 34%. Mitigation slows the pace at which multiple drivers emerge, allowing an additional 20 years for adaptation in marine ecological and socio-economic systems alike.

Recent California Water Transfers: Implications for Water Management

Natural Resources Journal (University of New Mexico) | January 3rd, 1995

The 1991 and 1992 California Drought Emergency Water Banks were the first large water transfer programs in the nation in which the state served as the predominant broke

The 1991 and 1992 California Drought Emergency Water Banks were the first large water transfer programs in the nation in which the state served as the predominant broker for water trades. Although the state-sponsored Water Banks have drawn widespread attention, there have been a great number of water transfers and exchanges taking place in California independently of the state. These transfers illustrate well the widespread applicability of transfers in managing water resource systems, as well as the multiple mechanisms available for effecting water transfers. This article focuses on California's recent experiences with water transfers, and offers a series of potential lessons for federal, state, and local managers for integrating water transfers in regional water resource systems.

Recharge Area Identification, Utilization, and Protection Resource Management Strategy

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | April 29th, 2024

This resource management strategy (RMS) advances water supply augmentation, resilience, and equity in California by providing summaries of the state of knowledge, applica

This resource management strategy (RMS) advances water supply augmentation, resilience, and equity in California by providing summaries of the state of knowledge, applications, and available information and resources on recharge area identification, utilization, and protection.

Recharge Area Protection (Resource Management Strategy)

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | July 29th, 2016

Recharge areas are those areas that provide the primary means of replenishing groundwater. Good natural recharge areas are those where good quality surface water is able

Recharge areas are those areas that provide the primary means of replenishing groundwater. Good natural recharge areas are those where good quality surface water is able to percolate through the sediments and rocks to the saturated zone which contains groundwater. If recharge areas cease to function properly, it will limit groundwater replenishment and/or groundwater quality for storage or use. Protection of recharge areas requires a number of actions based on two primary goals: (1) ensuring that areas suitable for recharge continue to be capable of adequate recharge rather than being covered by urban infrastructure, such as buildings and roads, and (2) preventing pollutants from entering groundwater to avoid expensive treatment that may be necessary prior to beneficial use. Protection of recharge areas is necessary to maintain the quantity and quality of groundwater in the aquifer. However, protecting recharge areas by itself does not provide a supply of water. Recharge areas are functioning properly when aquifer storage capacity is available, sufficient permeable surface is present, and the adequate supply of good quality water to recharge the aquifer is available. Protecting existing and potential recharge areas allows them to serve as valuable components of a conjunctive management and groundwater strategy.

Recommendations for Sustainable Groundwater Management

California Water Foundation | April 5th, 2014

The results of this effort are organized and presented as follows in this Report: • A review of the Dialogue process that provides additional details about participati

The results of this effort are organized and presented as follows in this Report: • A review of the Dialogue process that provides additional details about participating stakeholders and their perspectives; • A description of the background and challenges for California’s groundwater management and current efforts to achieve measurable progress toward sustainable management; • A set of key Findings; and • A package of seven policy Recommendations intended to lead to a new state policy for meaningful, measurable improvement in groundwater management within realistic timeframes. The Recommendations in this report reflect the best judgments of CWF about what is needed to achieve sustainable groundwater management while keeping decision making primarily at local and regional levels. CWF remains committed to a constructive public discussion about this critical issue and, ultimately, to meaningful legislative and policy actions.

Recommendations to the State Water Resources Control Board Pursuant to California Water Code Section 10609

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | September 29th, 2022

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is pleased to provide the following recommendations developed in response to the 2018 Legislation (Senate Bill 606 [Hertzberg] and

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is pleased to provide the following recommendations developed in response to the 2018 Legislation (Senate Bill 606 [Hertzberg] and Assembly Bill 1668 [Friedman]) enacted in support of “Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life.” The Legislation included provisions for advancing urban water use efficiency through developing and implementing various water use efficiency standards, variances for unique uses of water, and commercial, industrial, and institutional (CII) performance measures, among other requirements. Full reports detailing our methods, technical analyses, studies, public input, and recommendations will follow. These recommendations for long-term urban water use efficiency reflect technical considerations, public input, and the imperative to continue California’s progress in urban efficient use of water for future generations. If adopted DWR's recommendations on outdoor residential and CII water use on landscapes with dedicated irrigation meters, combined with the indoor residential water use standard recommendations submitted to the Legislature jointly by DWR and State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board), pursuant to Water Code 10609.4 (b)(1), would result in expected long-term water savings of approximately 450,000 acre-feet per year starting in 2030 – considering 2019 population and 2017-2019 water use data, the water savings are enough to supply about 1.6 million homes or 4.7 million residents for both indoor and outdoor annual water needs.

Redefining expectations for urban water supply systems to fight wildfires

Springer Nature | March 5th, 2025

When considering massive new costs for urban water systems to fight wildfires, we also need to look hard at the distribution of benefits from these investments, and desig

When considering massive new costs for urban water systems to fight wildfires, we also need to look hard at the distribution of benefits from these investments, and design legal and fiscal cost recovery mechanisms that align with those benefits. In the service area for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, greatly expanding capacity for water supply and fire-flow for the highest-elevation areas of the city would be delivering a benefit to communities that are much wealthier, on average, than the rest of the city. There is danger of placing a burden on less-resourced households to pay for the protection of well-resourced households, which would compound existing and profound environmental inequities in the city.

Reforming Watershed Restoration: Science in Need of Application and Applications in Need of Science (The H.T. Odum Synthesis Essay)

Estuaries and Coasts (Springer) | December 23rd, 2008

Coastal and inland waters are continuing to decline in many parts of the world despite major efforts made to restore them. This is due in part to the inadequate role that

Coastal and inland waters are continuing to decline in many parts of the world despite major efforts made to restore them. This is due in part to the inadequate role that ecological science has played in shaping restoration efforts. A significant amount of fundamental ecological knowledge dealing with issues such as system dynamics, state changes, context-dependency of ecological response, and diversity is both under-used by managers and practitioners and under-developed by ecologists for use in real-world applications. Some of the science that is being ‘used’ has not been adequately tested. Thus, restoration ecology as a science and ecological restoration as a practice are in need of reform. I identify five ways in which our ecological knowledge should be influencing restoration to a far greater extent than at present including a need to: shift the focus to restoration of process and identification of the limiting factors instead of structures and single species, add ecological insurance to all projects, identify a probabilistic range of possible outcomes instead of a reference condition, expand the spatial scale of efforts, and apply hierarchical approaches to prioritization. Prominent examples of restoration methods or approaches that are commonly used despite little evidence to support their efficacy are highlighted such as the use of only structural enhancements to restore biodiversity. There are also major gaps in scientific knowledge that are of immediate need to policy makers, managers, and restoration practitioners including: predictive frameworks to guide the restoration of ecological processes, identification of social-ecological feedbacks that constrain ecosystem recovery and data to support decisions of where and how to implement restoration projects to achieve the largest gains. I encourage ecologists to respond to the demand for their scientific input so that restoration can shift from an engineering-driven process to a more sustainable enterprise that fully integrates ecological processes and social science methods.