Latest News & Insights
An op-ed in Smart Water Magazine from Newsha Ajami outlines three transformation ideas to consider as communities rebound from the pandemic, address recent infrastructure failures and plan for the future.
Using a new computer framework, scientists are able to project future floodwaters under a changing climate. The approach could help California water managers plan for and redirect floodwaters toward groundwater aquifers, alleviating both flood and drought risks.
While California’s landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act promised comprehensive protection of the state’s groundwater, significant gaps remain in its coverage.
Featured Publications
April 21, 2021
Harvesting floodwaters to recharge depleted groundwater aquifers can simultaneously reduce flood and drought risks and enhance groundwater sustainability. However, deployment of this multibeneficial adaptation option is fundamentally constrained by how much water is available for recharge (WAFR) at present and under future climate change. Here, we develop a climate-informed and policy-relevant framework to quantify WAFR, its uncertainty, and associated policy actions.
March 29, 2021
In 2014, California took a major step toward sustainable groundwater with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. While a positive step forward in many respects, under SGMA implementation three major gaps in California’s regulation of groundwater pumping remain: brackish groundwater, non-alluvial groundwater basins and basins ranked by the state as lower priority. These gaps can cause serious harm to communities and ecosystems, and therefore must be addressed if California truly wishes to manage its groundwater sustainably.
Spotlight
Evaluating the Use of Data Platforms for Water Management Decisions
There has been increasing recognition that the fragmentation of water and ecological data across California hinders effective and timely water management decisions. To help remedy this issue, developers are building water data platforms to pull together the data relevant to the decision-making process. Researchers at Water in the West analyzed development and implementation of 12 existing water data platforms to determine factors contributing to their success, and make a series of recommendations to help future development of water data platforms.
Read more![[Woods Logo]](/sites/default/files/logos/footer-logo-woods.png){kind=logo}
![[Bill Lane Center Logo]](/sites/default/files/logos/footer-logo-billlane.png){kind=logo}