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A Delta Renewed: A Guide to Science-Based Ecological Restoration in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

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A Delta Renewed: A Guide to Science-Based Ecological Restoration in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | November 1, 2016...
Summary
A Delta Renewed and the larger Delta Landscapes project are part of an ongoing effort to address these critically important challenges. They provide guidance...
A Delta Renewed and the larger Delta Landscapes project are part of an ongoing effort to address these critically important challenges. They provide guidance for restoration that renews critical functions over time without having major negative impacts on the current human enterprise in the Delta area and on other areas dependent on its services. The idea is to determine the most efficient ways to recover Delta functioning so that human benefits are maintained, while investing in process-based recovery of landscape functions. The scientists working on this project assume that this goal is best achieved if we can understand how the Delta functioned before major European modification. We can then use that knowledge as a guide to developing a diverse portfolio of habitats and connections that might sustain native species, and the attributes of a healthy Delta into the future. The effort to reconstruct the Delta of the early 1800s has been challenging, but is now completed. The next step is to devise management scenarios that will recover important functions and native species where possible. There is no intent to try to recreate the Delta of the past. That is impossible without sacrificing our objective of maintaining and even improving the human enterprises now present. What is essential now is to obtain general agreement among all of the stakeholders, which includes all citizens of California, that the Delta should be managed for the benefit of people and wildlife in a sustainable way. Given the uncertainties inherent in any large-scale reconciliation effort, there is a real need to appreciate the complex interactions and inter-dependencies that characterize the various components of the Delta landscape. There is also a need to understand the uncertainties of future climate change and to recognize the diversity of needs among our fellow citizens. Our hopes for success will ultimately depend on generating a spirit of cooperation for the common good. It won’t be easy, but the stakes are high. The Delta Landscapes project is dedicated to that goal.

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A Delta Renewed: A Guide to Science-Based Ecological Restoration in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

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A Delta Renewed: A Guide to Science-Based Ecological Restoration in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | November 1, 2016...
Summary
This report offers guidance for creating and maintaining landscapes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that support desired ecological functions, while retaining the overall...
This report offers guidance for creating and maintaining landscapes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that support desired ecological functions, while retaining the overall agricultural character and water-supply service of the region. Based on extensive research into how the Delta functioned historically, how it has changed, and how it is likely to evolve, we discuss where and how to re-establish the dynamic natural processes that can sustain native Delta habitats and wildlife into the future. The approach, building on work others have piloted and championed, is to restore or emulate natural processes where possible, establish an appropriate mosaic of habitat types at the landscape scale, use multi-benefit management strategies to increase support for native species in agricultural and urban areas, and allow the Delta to adapt to future uncertainties of climate change, levee failure, and human population growth. With this approach, it will be critical to integrate ecological improvements with the human landscape: a robust agricultural economy, water infrastructure and diversions, and urbanized areas. Strategic restoration that builds on the history and ecology of the region can contribute to the strong sense of place and recreational value of the Delta.

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Bay Area Green Infrastructure Water Quality Synthesis

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Bay Area Green Infrastructure Water Quality Synthesis
San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) / Aquatic Science Center (ASC) | June 1, 2018...
Summary
San Francisco Bay is impacted by the numerous urban pollutants that flow from the surrounding landscape during storm events. In San Francisco Bay, total...
San Francisco Bay is impacted by the numerous urban pollutants that flow from the surrounding landscape during storm events. In San Francisco Bay, total maximum daily load (TMDL) clean-up plans are in place for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and mercury (Hg) (Davis et al., 2007; Davis et al., 2012).

As municipalities strive to reach regulatory targets, green infrastructure (GI) presents a promising solution for managing stormwater pollutants while achieving additional environmental and social benefits. However, remaining data gaps including the best design layout, media composition, and vegetation and submerged zone effects on performance can prevent local managers from accurately assessing water quality benefits provided by green infrastructure as well as the maintenance needs to sustain adequate performance.

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Benefit Accounting of Nature-Based Solutions for Watersheds Landscape Assessment

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Benefit Accounting of Nature-Based Solutions for Watersheds Landscape Assessment
United Nations | August 3, 2020...
Summary
This landscape assessment is the outcome of Phase 1 of a tri-phased project and was designed to inform the path forward for engaging the...
This landscape assessment is the outcome of Phase 1 of a tri-phased project and was designed to inform the path forward for engaging the private sector to invest in nature-based solutions (NBS). A literature review was undertaken to understand the contemporary thinking around NBS and identify key opportunities and challenges faced by decision makers, practitioners and researchers. Interviews conducted with representatives of businesses, civil society and academia who have already implemented NBS projects or are looking to do so yielded qualitative responses to complement or contrast with the findings from the literature review.

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Building Drought Resilience in California’s Cities and Suburbs
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Building Drought Resilience in California’s Cities and Suburbs
Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) | June 1, 2017...
Summary
Droughts are a recurring feature of California’s climate. Major droughts provide an opportunity to review management responses and derive policy lessons that can...
Droughts are a recurring feature of California’s climate. Major droughts provide an opportunity to review management responses and derive policy lessons that can better prepare society for the next one. Here we take stock of how California’s cities and suburbs have responded to recent droughts, review the state’s evolving role in urban drought management, and recommend actions to increase urban areas’ drought resilience.

California’s urban water supply system is complex and highly decentralized, with 400-plus utilities serving more than 90 percent of the state’s residents. Following the hard lessons learned from the 1976–77 and 1987–92 droughts, these utilities made substantial investments in drought resilience. This included diversifying supplies with new surface and underground storage, interconnections with neighboring suppliers, recycled wastewater, and water transfer agreements, as well as freeing up supplies by reducing indoor water use. Consequently, urban water suppliers generally believed they were prepared as the state entered a five-year drought in 2012.

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Building Ecological Resilience in Highly Modified Landscapes

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Building Ecological Resilience in Highly Modified Landscapes
BioScience | November 7, 2018...
Summary
Ecological resilience is a powerful heuristic for ecosystem management in the context of rapid environmental change. Significant efforts are underway to improve the...

Ecological resilience is a powerful heuristic for ecosystem management in the context of rapid environmental change. Significant efforts are underway to improve the resilience of biodiversity and ecological function to extreme events and directional change across all types of landscapes, from intact natural systems to highly modified landscapes such as cities and agricultural regions. However, identifying management strategies likely to promote ecological resilience remains a challenge. In this article, we present seven core dimensions to guide long-term and large-scale resilience planning in highly modified landscapes, with the objective of providing a structure and shared vocabulary for recognizing opportunities and actions likely to increase resilience across the whole landscape. We illustrate application of our approach to landscape-scale ecosystem management through case studies from two highly modified California landscapes, Silicon Valley and the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. We propose that resilience-based management is best implemented at large spatial scales and through collaborative, cross-sector partnerships.

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Changes in water consumption linked to heavy news media coverage of extreme climatic events

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Changes in water consumption linked to heavy news media coverage of extreme climatic events
Science Magazine, American Association for the Advancement of Science | October 25, 2017...
Summary
Public awareness of water- and drought-related issues is an important yet relatively unexplored component of water use behavior. To examine this relationship, we...

Public awareness of water- and drought-related issues is an important yet relatively unexplored component of water use behavior. To examine this relationship, we first quantified news media coverage of drought in California from 2005 to 2015, a period with two distinct droughts; the later drought received unprecedentedly high media coverage, whereas the earlier drought did not, as the United States was experiencing an economic downturn coinciding with a historic presidential election. Comparing this coverage to Google search frequency confirmed that public attention followed news media trends. We then modeled single-family residential water consumption in 20 service areas in the San Francisco Bay Area during the same period using geospatially explicit data and including news media coverage as a covariate. Model outputs revealed the factors affecting water use for populations of varying demographics. Importantly, the models estimated that an increase of 100 drought-related articles in a bimonthly period was associated with an 11 to 18% reduction in water use. Then, we evaluated high-resolution water consumption data from smart meters, known as advanced metering infrastructure, in one of the previously modeled service areas to evaluate breakpoints in water use trends. Results demonstrated that whereas nonresidential commercial irrigation customers responded to changes in climate, single-family residential customers decreased water use at the fastest rate following heavy drought-related news media coverage. These results highlight the need for water resource planners and decision makers to further consider the importance of effective, internally and externally driven, public awareness and education in water demand behavior and management.

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Defining urban resilience: A review

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Defining urban resilience: A review
Landscape and Urban Planing, Elsevier | March 1, 2016...
Summary
Fostering resilience in the face of environmental, socioeconomic, and political uncertainty and risk has captured the attention of academics and decision makers across...
Fostering resilience in the face of environmental, socioeconomic, and political uncertainty and risk has captured the attention of academics and decision makers across disciplines, sectors, and scales. Resilience has become an important goal for cities, particularly in the face of climate change. Urban areas house the majority of the world's population, and, in addition to functioning as nodes of resource consumption and as sites for innovation, have become laboratories for resilience, both in theory and in practice. This paper reviews the scholarly literature on urban resilience and concludes that the term has not been well defined. Existing definitions are inconsistent and underdeveloped with respect to incorporation of crucial concepts found in both resilience theory and urban theory. Based on this literature review, and aided by bibliometric analysis, the paper identifies six conceptual tensions fundamental to urban resilience: (1) definition of ‘urban’; (2) understanding of system equilibrium; (3) positive vs. neutral (or negative) conceptualizations of resilience; (4) mechanisms for system change; (5) adaptation versus general adaptability; and (6) timescale of action. To advance this burgeoning field, more conceptual clarity is needed. This paper, therefore, proposes a new definition of urban resilience. This definition takes explicit positions on these tensions, but remains inclusive and flexible enough to enable uptake by, and collaboration among, varying disciplines. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the definition might serve as a boundary object, with the acknowledgement that applying resilience in different contexts requires answering: Resilience for whom and to what? When? Where? And why?

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Estimation of residential outdoor water use in Los Angeles, California

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Estimation of residential outdoor water use in Los Angeles, California
Landscape and Urban Planing, Elsevier | July 1, 2014...
Summary
The current study analyzes existing methods for estimating outdoor use and landscape irrigation in highly developed residential areas across Los Angeles. Outdoor use...
The current study analyzes existing methods for estimating outdoor use and landscape irrigation in highly developed residential areas across Los Angeles. Outdoor use was estimated using three methods: two methods described by the Pacific Institute and a third approach that utilizes remotely sensed vegetation and water billing data. Monthly individual water use records were provided by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) for 2000–2010. This period includes voluntary and mandatory restrictions due to drought conditions across the state. Records were aggregated to the census tract level to protect customer privacy. The two Pacific Institute methods, which are based on water billing data, generally underestimate outdoor use due to assumptions that the lowest water consumption month represents indoor use, which is likely not the case in Los Angeles. The remote-sensing model developed between single-family water use and the Landsat normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) surplus performed well in greener areas of the city and indicates that landscape irrigation use represents 54% of total single-family water use. The model also predicts an average decrease in landscaping irrigation of 6% and by 35% during voluntary and mandatory restrictions, respectively. Voluntary conservation and mandatory waste restrictions were less effective for higher income groups in the city, while more stringent pricing and non-pricing mandatory restrictions in FY2010 had similar effects across income groups. Study results contribute to a better understanding of the partitioning of Los Angeles residential water use and can be utilized to evaluate pricing structures and target water conservation efforts.

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Evaluating the Effects of Turf-Replacement Programs in Los Angeles County
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Evaluating the Effects of Turf-Replacement Programs in Los Angeles County
UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA Geography Department, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, University of Utah | August 4, 2017...
Summary
In 2014, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) undertook an unprecedented investment to incentive turf replacement throughout Southern California in response...
In 2014, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) undertook an unprecedented investment to incentive turf replacement throughout Southern California in response to the state’s serious drought. MWD devoted $350 million to the program, resulting in more than 46,000 rebate payments to remove 165 million square feet of turf. The funding boost served as a tremendous natural experiment to better understand the effects turf replacement programs.

As part of an evaluation of this program, UCLA and the University of Utah examined socio-economic and demographic characteristics of program participation and assessed changes in vegetation and landscapes of front yards resulting from turf replacement. We examined address-level records of 24,921 participants who applied for turf replacement rebates between February 2014 and April 2016 in Los Angeles (LA) County. We analyzed the socioeconomic and spatial determinants of program participation. Further, we used Google Earth Street View to characterize the landscapes and plants resulting from turf replacement based on a set of randomly selected participating properties. We ascertained the types of turf replacements that were installed and developed a classification system for landscape design types.

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