Author: tgrantham

California recently released the findings of its Fourth Climate Change Assessment. The assessment includes a statewide summary report, regional reports, and topical reports and are intended to translate the state of climate science into useful information for decision-makers and practitioners to catalyze action that will benefit regions, the ocean and coast, frontline communities, and tribal and indigenous communities. Ted led the North Coast Region Report, with contributions from several UC colleagues.

Check out the latest report from PPIC’s Water Policy Center, which recommends water policy reforms for avoiding negative social, economic, and environmental consequences from drought and a changing climate. Key reforms include:

• Plan ahead. Stronger drought planning is critically important for urban water management, groundwater sustainability, safe drinking water in rural communities, and freshwater ecosystems.
• Upgrade the water grid. California needs a comprehensive program to address above- and below-ground storage, conveyance, and operational challenges by mid-century, including repairing facilities that are broken, expanding conveyance and storage capacity, and modernizing and integrating operations.
• Update water allocation rules. California should comprehensively update its water allocation governance. The goals should be to find equitable and efficient ways to allocate limited supplies among competing demands during dry times while promoting efforts to capture and store water during wet times.
• Find the money. Reliable funding is crucial for adapting to climate change. New sources are needed to pay for necessary water-management investments and to fill funding gaps in the state’s water system.

Check out our new paper in Climatic Change!

Figure from paper illustrates how monthly streamflow in the interior mountain region of California responds to incremental changes in temperature and precipitation (relative to historical period). Black dots represent climate model projections for the region.

Fernando Nardi, Ryan Morrison, Antonio Annis, and Ted just published a paper in River Research and Applications, which describes a floodplain mapping approach that uses geomorphic principles and land surface topography to predict the distribution of floodplains across large geographic scales. Check it out!

Hot off the press, a new paper by Howard et al. in Freshwater Science identifies priority watersheds in California for conserving freshwater biodiversity.

Check out this video about our inaugural 2017 UC Water Academy class on UC TV!

Check out the following new publications on environmental flows: Eng et al. examine how well we can model and predict environmental flows in the US, Carlisle et al. explore the ecological relevance of environmental flow metrics, and Zimmerman et al. evaluate patterns and magnitudes of flow alteration in the US.

Source: Zimmerman et al. 2017. Freshwater Biology.

New paper in special issue on “Variability in Mediterranean-Climate Waters: Space, Time and Intensity” in the journal Water. Read more

A USGS Open File Report has been published describing a new approach for estimating natural, or unimpaired, flows in all of California’s rivers and streams. Read more

Check out Ted Grantham’s interview on the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) Blog.