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California WaterBlog

Tag: Jay Lund

  • Wild Things and the Delta

    Jay Lund, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Peter Moyle, Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology University of California – Davis   The recent death of Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are, brings some whimsical reflections on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.  Several quotes from the book seem to have potential lessons…

  • Some springtime reading on California water

    Jay R. Lund, Director, Center for Watershed Sciences and the Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis California is a wonderful place to study water, with so many interesting and important problems, many thoughtful and insightful authors, and much to be learned.  Here is a short selection of  readings on…

  • Can solid flood planning improve all California water planning?

    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. In December, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) released their new Central Valley flood…

  • Expanding water storage capacity in California

    Jay R. Lund, The Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis “The old gray mare, she ain’t what she used to be.” The recent report from the US Bureau of Reclamation on the economic feasibility of raising Shasta Dam illustrates that we are in a new era for considering water…

  • Insights for California water policy from computer modeling

    “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” G.E.P. Box By Jay R. Lund California has a very complex water system which is important to many often competing interests and purposes. Because of this, California’s water system will always be controversial. Nevertheless, decisions about managing California’s water system will be made. How can we understand…

  • Whither the Delta economy?

    Josue Medellín-Azuara, Richard Howitt, Jay Lund – University of California, Davis Ellen Hanak – Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco Today, PPIC and UC Davis released a new report on the economy of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.  “Transitions for the Delta Economy” explores how the Delta’s economy has evolved since the early 1990s and…

  • Israel’s Delta – The Hula Valley

    Jay R. Lund, The Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis History has many cases of deltas, lakes, and marshlands which have been “reclaimed” for agriculture, then as agriculture became uneconomical, have been returned to the environment (Mostert 2011). In far northern Israel is Hula Valley, about 44,000 acres of…

  • Multiple stressors – funding the Delta like a public sewer

    Jay R. Lund, The Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis “There once was a woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do.” It has become trite to observe that many environmental problems are caused by “multiple stressors.”  Multiple historical and…

  • Boldly approach the Delta’s future

    By Jay R. Lund and Ellen Hanak Policy decisions on how to manage the lands and waters of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are unavoidably controversial.  The Delta Stewardship Council’s first Delta Plan, now under development, presents a rare opportunity to establish bold state policy directions on the Delta’s many controversies. Such bold action is needed…

  • Water Storage in California

    Jay R. Lund, The Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis “With a larger reservoir, there is some increasing gain with further size, but in a diminishing ratio.” – Alan Hazen (1914) Water storage capacity is an important tool in California’s water system for capturing lower-value water for higher-value uses…

  • Managing for multiple stressors in the Delta

    Ellen Hanak1, Jay Lund2, Peter Moyle3, Jeffrey Mount4, Brian Gray5 and Barton “Buzz” Thompson6   Across California, native fish populations are in sharp decline, despite decades of well-intentioned efforts to reverse the effects of harmful water and land management policies (Hanak et al., 2011). As more fish species have been listed under the federal and…

  • Woodman, spare that levee?

    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 noble and worthy causes—environmental and recreation interests favor trees and bushes on levees and public…

  • Blogs, blogs everywhere…

    This week’s blog is a compilation of recent stories you might have missed. BDCP parties agree to a peripheral bucket line around Delta – The 44 mile line would require 33,000 employees per shift, spaced 7 feet apart, and would have a capacity of 5 gallons per second.  A DWR spokesman said, “This approach will…

  • Delta “chicken” – A tragedy

    Jay Lund, UC Davis, Ray B. Krone Professor of Environmental Engineering   Few dispute the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta’s poor and deteriorating condition—for native fishes, many landowners, and water users locally and statewide—and the subsequent need for major changes in Delta policy.  Most parties understand that without a credible comprehensive solution, continued deterioration will become more…