Tag Archives: floodplain

Making every drop count in drought – and deluge

Posted on April 9, 2015 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

By Joshua Viers and Graham Fogg A little publicized but highly curious part of the emergency drought legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last month advances hundreds of millions of dollars to shore up and replace aging levees in flood … Continue reading →

Posted in Drought | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

Innovations in floodplain modeling: A test-drive on the Yolo Bypass

Posted on October 18, 2013 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

High-resolution simulation of 2006 flooding in Yolo Bypass Video shows a swollen Sacramento River spilling over the Fremont weir into the 57,000-acre floodway. Notice that the floodwaters spread through individual irrigation ditches and drains, the blue hues darkening as levels rise. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

A sweet spot for farms and fish on a floodplain

Posted on May 9, 2013 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

By Richard Howitt and Josué Medellín-Azuara For decades, Sacramento area freeway commuters have been treated to a carousel of contrasting landscapes as they cross a vast floodplain known as the Yolo Bypass. The carousel rotates by the season. In wet … Continue reading →

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Water and California’s Economy

Posted on May 30, 2012 by

Ellen Hanak, Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), San Francisco, CA Jay Lund, Center for Watershed Sciences, University of California – Davis Buzz Thompson, Stanford School of Law Today, PPIC released “Water and the California Economy,” a report that presents … Continue reading →

Posted in California Water, Economy, Floodplains, Planning and Management, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Sustainability, Water Supply and Wastewater | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Can solid flood planning improve all California water planning?

Posted on March 27, 2012 by

Jay R. Lund, The Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis “No single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood.”  E.L. Kersten The best time to prepare for floods is during a drought. … Continue reading →

Posted in California Water, Climate Change, Floodplains, Planning and Management, Water Conservation, Water System Modeling | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The benefits of floodplain reconnection

Posted on August 11, 2011 by cathrynlawrence

By Jeffrey Mount For more than a century, California has sought to separate floodplains from rivers.  An elaborate array of levees and dams usually confine, divert or capture winter floods, supporting agriculture on rich floodplain soils and unreliably protecting urban … Continue reading →

Posted in California Water, Fish, Floodplains | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Woodman, spare that levee?

Posted on June 30, 2011 by cathrynlawrence

Jay Lund, the Ray B. Krone Professor of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis   Policy debates sometimes seem to tragically miss the big picture.  The current debate on levee vegetation in California is an example.  Both sides assert … Continue reading →

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Frolicking fat floodplain fish feeding furiously

Posted on June 2, 2011 by cathrynlawrence

By Carson Jeffres Spring is here, temperatures are warming, and juvenile salmon have filled the floodplains—a link for them between the gravel bedded rivers where they hatched and the ocean where they will spend the next one to five years.  … Continue reading →

Posted in California Water, Fish, Floodplains | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

New Life for the Delta Ecosystem

Posted on April 21, 2011 by cathrynlawrence

Peter Moyle, Professor of Fish Biology, University of California-Davis  The Delta and Suisun Marsh were once part of a continuous, enormously productive aquatic ecosystem that supported dense populations of fish from Sacramento perch to salmon, huge flocks of wintering waterfowl, … Continue reading →

Posted in Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments