Achieving Equitable, Climate-Resilient Water and Sanitation for Frontline Communities Water, Sanitation, and Climate Change in the United States Series, Part 3

Pacific Institute | March 18th, 2025

This report contains numerous documented efforts of ways that frontline communities are making progress toward equitable, climate-resilient water and sanitation. Built in

This report contains numerous documented efforts of ways that frontline communities are making progress toward equitable, climate-resilient water and sanitation. Built infrastructure is being adapted to better withstand the impacts of extreme storms, floods, and drought. Technologies and innovations are being designed and deployed in remote, hard-to-reach communities to deliver climate-resilient water and sanitation to homes for the first time. Natural infrastructure strategies are being used to enhance the climate resilience of water and sanitation by helping recharge aquifers and attenuate floodwaters, for example. Water managers and planners are incorporating climate resilience and centering frontline communities in efforts to deliver equitable, climate-resilient water and sanitation access to all. Frontline communities are overcoming barriers to accessing the financial resources that they need to pay for climate adaptation of water and sanitation or recover and respond to climate disasters. Climate and water knowledge and information from government agencies, water managers, local experts, and climate scientists are being integrated with place-based knowledges to ensure frontline communities and people in positions of power and authority can understand and access the data and information they need for decision making. The capacity of water and sanitation systems staff and decision makers is growing to better center the needs of frontline communities, educate and support the water and sanitation sector workforces in improving climate resilience, and build connections with interdependent sector. This is part three  in the Pacific Institute’s three-part Water, Sanitation, and Climate Change in the United States series. Click here for part one and  here for part two.

Achieving Groundwater Access for All: Why Groundwater Sustainability Plans are Failing Many Users

Groundwater Leadership Forum | July 3rd, 2023

California made a serious commitment to bring the most depleted groundwater basins back into balance when it passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in 2

California made a serious commitment to bring the most depleted groundwater basins back into balance when it passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in 2014. This commitment is being carried out at the local level through the formation of hundreds of new groundwater agencies, the launch of basin-level planning processes, and the creation of groundwater sustainability plans. This report summarizes the results of a scientific study published in Nature Communications. that analyzed the degree to which these groundwater plans equitably integrate and protect vulnerable groundwater users, and suggests course corrections in the ongoing SGMA process to ensure we are preparing our groundwater basins for a changed climate.

Adaptation Strategies for Agricultural Sustainability in Yolo County, California

California Energy Commission (CEC) | July 31st, 2012

This place-based case study in an agricultural county in California’s Central Valley focused on the period of 2010–2050, and dealt with biophysical and socioeconomic

This place-based case study in an agricultural county in California’s Central Valley focused on the period of 2010–2050, and dealt with biophysical and socioeconomic issues related to both mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to adaptation to an uncertain climate. In the past 100 years, changes in crop acreage has been more related to crop price and availability of irrigation water than to growing degree days during summer, and in fact, summer temperatures have increased less than winter temperatures. Econometric analysis indicated that warmer winters, as projected by Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory-Bias Corrected Constructed Analog during 2035–2050, could result in less wheat acreage, more alfalfa and tomato acreage, and slight effects on tree and vine crops. The Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) model showed that these econometric projections did not reduce irrigation demand under either the B1 or A2 scenarios, but a diverse, water-efficient cropping pattern combined with improved irrigation technology reduced demand to 12 percent below the historic mean. Collaboration during development of Yolo County’s Climate Action Plan showed that nitrous oxide (mainly from nitrogen fertilizers) was the main source (40 percent) of agricultural emissions. Emissions from cropland and rangeland were several orders of magnitude lower than urbanized land per unit area. A survey distributed to 570 farmers and ranchers achieved a 34 percent response rate. Farmers concerned about climate change were more likely to implement water conservation practices, and adopt voluntary GHG mitigation practices. Use of the urban growth model (UPlan) showed that channeling much or all future urban development into existing urban areas will increase ecosystem services by preserving agricultural land and open space, immensely reducing the Yolo County’s GHG emissions, and greatly enhancing agricultural sustainability.

Adapting California’s Water Management to Climate Change

Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) | January 12th, 2009

Among the potential impacts of climate change, accelerated sea level rise and a reduced Sierra snowpack are the most certain. Both will pose significant challenges for wa

Among the potential impacts of climate change, accelerated sea level rise and a reduced Sierra snowpack are the most certain. Both will pose significant challenges for water supply and flood management. Water utilities have already begun to plan for these changes, but flood control agencies are lagging behind and face greater regulatory constraints. State leadership is needed to resolve some threats, including the risk of catastrophic failure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This report was prepared as part of the Preparing California for a Changing Climate project.

Adaptive Management - Applications Guide

U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) | January 1st, 2012

The Department of the Interior (DOI) Adaptive Management Working Group sponsored the development of this applications guide to provide thorough examples for a better unde

The Department of the Interior (DOI) Adaptive Management Working Group sponsored the development of this applications guide to provide thorough examples for a better understanding of how adaptive management can be implemented in the field. The applications guide builds on the framework for adaptive management presented in the DOI Adaptive Management Technical Guide, and illustrates the elements of adaptive management with a large number of natural resource examples. The Adaptive Management Working Group includes representatives from most DOI bureaus and offices. Writing teams of resource managers, technical experts, and other specialists worked with the group to identify and describe applications of adaptive management in four thematic areas: climate change, water resources, energy resources, and the interface of human and natural systems. These themes were chosen to illustrate the elements and processes of adaptive management because of their importance to DOI management responsibilities, the current interest in the thematic areas in using adaptive management, and the broad potential in each thematic area for learning-based management. In writing this guide, we attempted to provide enough background about the elements of adaptive management implementation, and the challenges in implementing it, to give the reader a context for the resource examples. We also sought to provide enough detail in the examples to illustrate clearly the elements of adaptive management. Thus, the guide includes summaries of the principles and issues relevant to adaptive management, followed by descriptions of potential and actual applications in each of the four thematic areas. The intention was to provide enough detail about the actual process of adaptive management to be informative, while limiting the scope, complexity, and size of the document.

Adaptive Management - Technical Guide

U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) | January 1st, 2009

The Department of the Interior (DOI) Adaptive Management Working Group (AMWG) sponsored the development of this technical guide to clearly and consistently define adaptiv

The Department of the Interior (DOI) Adaptive Management Working Group (AMWG) sponsored the development of this technical guide to clearly and consistently define adaptive management and describe conditions for its implementation. AMWG membership includes representatives from across DOI’s bureaus and offices. A writing team of resource managers, technical experts, and other specialists worked with AMWG to address four basic questions concerning adaptive management: (1) What is adaptive management? (2) When should it be used? (3) How should it be implemented? (4) How can its success be recognized and measured? These questions were used to organize both the writing effort and the structure of the guide itself, with individual chapters addressing each of the questions. The authors sought to describe adaptive management at an appropriate level of technical detail, while remaining focused on its definition, operational components, and conditions in which it applies. A key challenge was to provide sufficient detail for clarification, while limiting the length and complexity of the document.

Adaptive Management of Natural Resources: Theory, Concepts, and Management Institutions

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) | July 19th, 2005

This report reviews the extensive and growing literature on the concept and application of adaptive management. Adaptive management is a central element of the Northwest

This report reviews the extensive and growing literature on the concept and application of adaptive management. Adaptive management is a central element of the Northwest Forest Plan and there is a need for an informed understanding of the key theories, concepts, and frameworks upon which it is founded. Literature from a diverse range of fields including social learning, risk and uncertainty, and institutional analysis was reviewed, particularly as it related to application in an adaptive management context. The review identifies opportunities as well as barriers that adaptive management faces. It concludes by describing steps that must be taken to implement adaptive management.

Addressing California's Uncertain Water Future by Coordinating Long-Term Land Use and Water Planning: Is a Water Element in the General Plan the Next Step

Ecology Law Quarterly | January 15th, 2004

More people, less water: this is the widely anticipated future of the state of California. As the state's population grows to 46 million by the year 2020, Califor

More people, less water: this is the widely anticipated future of the state of California. As the state's population grows to 46 million by the year 2020, California will strive to meet water demand with a reduced water supply from the Colorado River, and struggle with the devastating impacts to the Sierra Nevada snow pack caused by global warming. Yet isCalifornia preparingfor this future today? Does the law direct land-use planners on the city and county levels to work in concert with their water planning counterparts to prepare for these significant challenges? Asconcern over these issues has grown, recent judicial and legislative action has added new substantive requirements for land-use and water planning, as well as adding procedural requirements that ask land use and water planners to communicate with one another more consistently. In addition,both the Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR) and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) are currently updating influential reference documents for land use and water planning professionals.

Addressing Multiple Stressors and Multiple Goals in the Delta Plan

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | January 26th, 2011

Advances in Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Prediction Relevant to Water Management in the Western United States

American Meteorological Society (AMS) | July 21st, 2022

Water management in the semi-arid western United States (U.S.) is a challenging endeavor that evolves from year to year based on large-scale atmospheric and oceanic condi

Water management in the semi-arid western United States (U.S.) is a challenging endeavor that evolves from year to year based on large-scale atmospheric and oceanic conditions. This region has frequently experienced prolonged periods of drought with substantial socioeconomic impacts; the most recent instance involves California entering its third consecutive drought year. As context for the economic implications of drought, California’s enacted state budget for the Fiscal Year 2021-22 authorizes more than $600 million for the California Department of Water Resources for providing immediate drought support to local water agencies (CA State Budget 2021a); this amount is part of a package of more than $5 billion over four years for water resilience and drought preparedness (CA State Budget 2021b). For drought preparedness, state and local water managers would like to rely on skillful forecasts on timescales that span the spectrum between weather forecasts and climate predictions. Despite recent improvements in developing sub-seasonal (2- to 6-weeks lead) and seasonal (2- to 6-months lead) prediction systems that compete with and/or outperform existing dynamical and statistical models (e.g., Gibson et al. 2021, Switanek et al. 2020, DeFlorio et al. 2019), forecasting limitations have hindered crucial management decisions for western U.S. water managers, especially related to longer-lead planning, budgeting, resource allocation, and better preparedness for wet and dry extremes (DeFlorio et al. 2021). Improved understanding of physical phenomena and processes governing weather and climate extremes and utilization of emerging forecast methodologies are critical to developing skillful S2S forecast products relevant to water management.