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Discovery and Innovation for a Resilient Water Future

The UC WATER Security and Sustainability Research Initiative is focused on strategic research to build the knowledge base for better water-resources management. Unprecedented climate change, population growth and changing landcover are radically altering the water cycle, with dramatic impacts on human and environmental uses of water. In 2015 the University of California established the UC WATER Initiative to address these issues. UC WATER brings researchers together from multiple University of California campuses—Berkeley, Davis, Merced, Santa Cruz, San Diego, and CITRIS.

UC WATER initiatives:

  • UC WATER is developing innovative, quantitative water accounting and analysis methods, and introducing modern information systems into California’s aging infrastructure. Current water policy lacks salient, credible, and legitimate water information forcing policymakers to rely on century-old technology and analysis techniques.
  • UC WATER will improve our understanding of the way water flows through the natural environment, and how it is extracted, conveyed and stored in built and natural infrastructure. This initiative also contributes to research by developing understanding of landcover changes on source-water areas, and tools and techniques for better groundwater management.
  • UC WATER tightly weaves legal and policy research into our findings. Our research will help facilitate more integrated water management institutions in California and aid in the development of the capacity to adapt to 21st-century stressors.

Groundwater Institutions, Resources, and Technology

Governance of Groundwater in California

We will develop a framework and options for groundwater governance under the newly-enacted Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). SGMA enables statewide regulation of groundwater for the first time in California’s history. As part of this legislation, medium- and higher-priority groundwater basins throughout the state are required to form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs), but many crucial details for implementation are not specified. We will seek to contribute to efforts to develop and clarify available options for local governance, in the context of the role of state agencies.

Initial UC Water efforts will address foundational questions including the following:

  • What are the roles that GSAs will need to play in achieving sustainability, and how can they be structured to do so?
  • What are the various options for creation of GSAs (e.g., Joint Power Authorities, Memoranda of Understanding/Memoranda of Agreement; new Special Districts, County government, or others)?
  • How, where, and in which situations might each best be applied?  What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of these options, in particular contexts likely to be faced in various groundwater basins?

For questions or comments about UC Water's groundwater governance research, please contact Michael Kiparsky.