Category Archives: Planning and Management

A Tale of Two Fires: How Wildfires Can Both Help and Harm Our Water Supply

Posted on December 3, 2017 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

by Gabrielle Boisramé Now that summer is over and rain has returned to California, it appears that the dramatic 2017 fire season is finally behind us. The effects of fire season can linger, however, with the possibilities of erosion and … Continue reading →

Posted in Planning and Management | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Moving Salmon over Dams with Two-Way Trap and Haul

Posted on November 5, 2017 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

by Peter Moyle and Robert Lusardi Removing Shasta Dam is the single best action we can take to save California’s wild salmon.  Not possible, you say? Then there are two alternatives. One is to provide plenty of cold water and … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservation, Fish, Planning and Management, Salmon, Stressors, Sustainability | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Accounting for groundwater movement between subbasins under SGMA

Posted on October 8, 2017 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

by Christina Buck, Jim Blanke, Reza Namvar, and Thomas Harter The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) presents many new challenges and opportunities.  One challenge is accounting for ‘interbasin flow,’ or subsurface groundwater movement between subbasins, a piece of the overall … Continue reading →

Posted in California Water, Groundwater, Planning and Management, Sustainability | Tagged | 3 Comments

Preliminary Analysis of Hurricane Harvey Flooding in Harris County, Texas

Posted on September 1, 2017 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

by Nicholas Pinter, Nicholas Santos, and Rui Hui Located in Harris County, Texas, Houston is the 4th most populous city in the US.  The flooding now unfolding in the Houston area is a human and economic disaster likely to rank … Continue reading →

Posted in Around the World, flood, Floodplains, Planning and Management, Tools | Tagged , , | 42 Comments

Trump Killed Obama’s Flood Protection Rule Two Weeks Ago

Posted on August 30, 2017 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

by Nicholas Pinter This post was originally published as an op-ed in Fortune. Whether or not you like President Donald Trump, the current administration has not been gifted with great timing. Just 10 days before Hurricane Harvey made landfall, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Around the World, Climate Change, flood, Floodplains, Planning and Management | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

We hold our convenient truths to be self-evident – Dangerous ideas in California water

Posted on August 27, 2017 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

by Jay Lund Success in water management requires broad agreement and coalitions.  But people often seem to group themselves into communities of interests and ideology, which see complex water problems differently.  Each group tends to hold different truths to be … Continue reading →

Posted in California Water, Planning and Management | Tagged | 8 Comments

California WaterFix and Delta Smelt

Posted on August 13, 2017 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

by Peter Moyle and James Hobbs The delta smelt is on a trajectory towards extinction in the wild.  Heading into 2017, the spawning adult population was at an all-time low although this past wet winter has apparently seen a small … Continue reading →

Posted in California Water, Conservation, Delta, Fish, Planning and Management, Restoration, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Sustainability | Tagged , | 17 Comments

Fish, flows, and 5937 – legal challenges on the Santa Maria River

Posted on July 30, 2017 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

by Karrigan Bork, JD, PhD Driving down the 101, you cross a half-mile long bridge over the Santa Maria River into the city of Santa Maria, California. It’s a large bridge, with big levees to constrain the river on either … Continue reading →

Posted in California Water, Fish, Groundwater, Planning and Management, Sustainability | Tagged | 3 Comments

A simplified method to classify streams and improve California’s water management

Posted on July 16, 2017 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

by Belize Lane, Sam Sandoval, and Sarah Yarnell Alterations to the natural flow regime for human water management activities have degraded river ecosystems worldwide. Such alterations are particularly destructive in regions with highly variable climates like California, where native riverine … Continue reading →

Posted in California Water, Planning and Management, Tools | Tagged | 2 Comments

Reflections on Cadillac Desert

Posted on July 9, 2017 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

by Jay Lund In 1986, when Mark Reisner published his book Cadillac Desert, I had just begun professing on water management. The book went “viral,” before the word viral had its present-day internet-intoxicated meaning.  The book offered a compelling revisionist … Continue reading →

Posted in California Water, Climate Change, education, Planning and Management, Stressors, Sustainability, Water Supply and Wastewater | Tagged | 13 Comments