Skip to content

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.

Water Resources Information and Accounting System

American River basin; Near-term activities and outputs will follow the integrated-basin measurement and modeling concept outlined below. Some of the longer-term modeling activities will depend on securing additional resources.

Spatially gridded, value-added products will be developed from the existing-sensor network and available satellite data; The emphasis will be on snowpack storage mapping and daily snowmelt mapping. UC WATER lead is Roger Bales rbales@ucmerced.edu

Basin-scale water-balance modeling using both point and spatial data will be used to simulate reservoir inflow; UC WATER lead is M. Conklin mconklin@ucmerced.edu

Reservoir modeling with CALSIM is proposed, pending discussions with DWR about using of the model; UC WATER lead is S. Sandoval and Josh Viers jviers@ucmerced.edu 

Integrated hydrologic modeling of lowland groundwater-surface water systems, using available data is planned; Initially, the modeling will focus on Yolo County, with the American-Cosumnes basin to follow. UC WATER lead is Graham Fogg gefogg@ucdavis.edu.

Kings River basin; Near term activities and outputs will also follow the integrated-basin measurement and modeling concept outlined below, though with different timing from the American activities.

Basin-scale water-balance modeling; UC WATER lead is Mohammad Safeeq with collaboration from Roger Bales msafeeq@ucmerced.edu 

Integrated hydrologic modeling of lowland groundwater-surface water systems; UC WATER lead is Graham Fogg gefogg@ucdavis.edu