UC Water Security and Sustainability Research Initiative (UC Water) A Multi-Campus Initiative 2015 Strategic Implementation Plan

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1 UC Water Security and Sustainability Research Initiative (UC Water) A Multi-Campus Initiative 2015 Strategic Implementation Plan Outline Aims of the initiative Organization intellectual Organization operational Integration and application Participants and collaborators Lead investigators Advisory group Director s council Appendix Task area descriptions 1. Water-resources information and accounting system 2. Groundwater institutions, resources and technology 3. Headwater management 4. Water-energy nexus Aims of the initiative Achieving a water-secure future requires 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. As California grapples with a multi-year drought, the need for water security is clear. In early 2015 UC established a Water Security and Sustainability Research Initiative (UC Water), aimed at focusing UC resources on key problems and working alongside California s water leaders. This multicampus initiative blends UCs technical advances in water resources with parallel innovations in policy analysis and decision support to meet the state s water-security challenges. Three elements of water security underpin the research. First, salient, credible and legitimate water information at the proper spatial and temporal scale is a bottleneck for sound decision making. UC Water will develop innovative, quantitative water accounting and analysis methods that replace century-old technology and provide the foundation for better decisions under increasing uncertainties. Embedding modern information systems into both natural and engineered infrastructure is feasible, affordable and timely. Second, understanding the way water flows through the natural environment, and how it is extracted, conveyed and stored in built and natural infrastructure is fraught with uncertainties. UC Water will make immediate research contributions by developing understanding of landcover changes on source-water areas, and tools and techniques for better groundwater management. Third, water-management institutions in California have not kept pace with yesterday s scientific and engineering developments, let alone developed the capacity to adapt to 21st-century stressors. We will tightly weave legal and policy research through our scientific agenda to create an integrated whole. Through integration of measurement and modeling technologies, and drawing on UC expertise across disciplines, we will make rapid progress towards filling the gaps. Organization intellectual There are two inter-related aspects to UC Water s organization, how we organize our thinking, and how we organize our work. This section describes the first of these. We organize our thinking around three interrelated concepts, as illustrated and defined in Box 1. Mutually supporting research on June 22,

2 Infrastructure, Institutions, and Information feed into Innovation and Integration in support of water security. In spite of its importance, our basic understanding of water in California lags behind that of other natural resources. Knowledge gaps exist in all three building blocks of water security; and these three elements of underpin UC Water s research themes. Information. Salient, credible, and legitimate information at the proper spatial and temporal resolution is increasingly a critical bottleneck for sound decision making. Development and application of innovative, quantitative water accounting and analysis methods will provide the foundation for better decision making under increasing uncertainties. Tools for high-resolution and real-time monitoring of major water stores (snowpack, soils, groundwater, wetlands, surface waters) and flows (evapotranspiration, recharge, surface and subsurface outflow) will provide accurate, timely feedback in support of adaptive management and infrastructure investments. Infrastructure. Understanding of the way water flows through the natural environment, and how it is extracted, conveyed, and stored in a combination of built and natural infrastructure, is fraught with uncertainties. Advances in fundamental hydrologic science are sorely needed. The connections between water storage, conveyance, and water use are central to water security. We define each of these June 22, Box 1. We define water security as the reliable availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and production, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risks. Sustaining water security in the face of interrelated changes in population, climate and land cover requires investments in three tightlylinked areas: INFRASTRUCTURE Innovation and Integration INFORMATION INSTITUTIONS Adequate water-supply storage is key to California s water-security infrastructure, including surface reservoirs, groundwater and natural infrastructure such as snowpack and soil-water storage. Institutions can be broadly defined as the rules, norms, and conventions that influence decisions in society. This includes organizations and agencies, but also legal, social, cultural and other influences on decisions. The third and foundational investment needed is better water information to guide decision making and improve water-supply reliability. Integration and innovation, including that enabled by our efforts and other institutions, can deliver multiple economic, environmental, and social benefits across watershed and jurisdictional boundaries. terms broadly, to include interrelated natural and human aspects of California s physical water systems. Advances in process understanding will improve integrated management of groundwater and surface water. Infrastructure also includes source-water areas, which influence water-quantity, water quality, and ecological outcomes. Institutions. Water-management institutions in California have not evolved to pace with yesterday s scientific and engineering developments, let alone the capacity to adapt to 21 st century stressors. Water security depends on institutions that manage the interplay between infrastructure and information. Legal, economic and social-science research will support improved management of source-water areas, with the goal of balancing human and environmental needs for water. Organization operational Over the long term, five overlapping and integrated research activities will guide work during the initial phase of the UC Water, each with multiple studies. These require disciplinary integration and crosscampus collaboration, including exchange of data, personnel, tools and methods; and will use UC Water resources to leverage and augment funding. The hallmark of UC Water will be research collaboration and partnerships with stakeholders facing critical knowledge gaps involving water management. This research can only be done under an umbrella that facilitates sharing of data, managing interdependencies and facilitating agreement of common research goals. UC Water plans research organized around five inter-related areas.

3 1. Developing and applying novel methods for water accounting 2. Incorporating climate change into water-resources management 3. Incorporating landscape characteristics in watershed analyses of water supply and quality 4. Demonstrating the power of enhanced water information for research and decision making 5. Valuation of impacts of water information and technology on water decision making For the first year, UC Water is focusing on activities that will provide near-term results, seed longer-term research, and build the sustainability of the initiative. These activities are described in the appendix. Integration and application California's population growth, changes in forest land cover and climate warming together raise the prospect of more-intense competition for limited water supplies, and are among the most challenging issues problems pressing water and land managers. Close collaboration between water managers and researchers offers the opportunity to quickly bring new technology to bear on water-resources decision making. Current decision-support systems are challenged by uncertainties in the timing, magnitude, and character of storms, floods, and snowmelt runoff. Further climate warming will compound these challenges, with increased precipitation variability, warmer temperatures, less snowpack storage, and greater likelihood of droughts and floods. Accompanying these changes will be greater demand from water managers and other stakeholders as population growth increases the pressure on mountain hydropower operations, water supplies, drought planning, forest management and flood control. Participants and collaborators Core participants include UC Water directors, drawing from the Berkeley, Davis. Merced, and Santa Cruz campuses of the UC, as well as their affiliated post-doctoral scholars, graduate and undergraduate student assistants, and staff. Other key participants include UC Water collaborators at the core campuses, identified in the proposal, and others to be determined through UC-wide seed granting supported by UC Water. It is our aim to engage colleagues from across UC, whether identified in the original proposal or not. This will require further leveraging of support from multiple other sources, given the limits on the initial UC Water budget. Initiative director: Roger Bales, UC Merced Initiative co-director: Josh Viers, UC Merced Campus leads: Martha Conklin, UC Merced Andrew Fisher, UC Santa Cruz Graham Fogg, UC Davis Michael Kiparsky, UC Berkeley Two additional groups complement the direction of UC Water. A Director s Advisory Council, drawing on expertise in California water outside of academia, will include affiliates from industry, government, and non-governmental organizations. A UC Academic Council will provide expertise from non-core campuses to assure cross-campus collaboration and integration, as well as maintain UC-wide excellence in research that demonstrates relevancy to solving California s water challenges. June 22,

4 Appendix Task-area descriptions Task-area 1. Water-resources information and accounting system Problem. To manage coupled river basin-groundwater systems in an area prone to drought, an information system is needed to intelligently manage water in years of plentiful moisture (store behind dams and through groundwater recharge) to accommodate dry years, given environmental flow requirements, flood protection and the many distributed legal, political, economic and equity issues around water in California. Vision. An intelligent water-resources information system will be a crucial ingredient in enabling decision makers to optimize for both water quantity and hydropower production. The system will provide data and information directly relevant for decision making, and also inform hydrologic modeling, and thus improve longer-term predictive capabilities. Activities. Two near-term and one longer-term activities are planned Strategic vision for water-resources information system. Develop a white paper (and peerreviewed publication) that examines the need for, benefits of, opportunity for and design of information and accounting systems for water resources in basins throughout California and elsewhere 1.2. Watershed-scale information system. Build on data and information systems that the UC Water team and collaborators have already developed, integrating them in an existing framework (Figure 1), with test beds in the American and Kings River basins. In terms of outcomes, this measurement, cyberinfrastrucure and modeling effort will be successful if the products are of use to water management Large basin-scale information system. Longer-term activities are planned at a broader scale, around valuation of impacts of water information and technology on water decision making. This is essentially a basin-wide or statewide implementation of what is planned under 1.2, above. Anticipated outcomes include a more-informed discussion of options for supporting effective water decisions, based on principles of accuracy, timeliness and transparency. While this concept is still evolving, Figure 2 shows an working draft being discussed by the UC water team. Figure 1. Overall approach and context for water-resources information system, Sierra Nevada example. Task-area 2. Groundwater institutions, resources and technology Problem. The historic 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) provides the potential for statewide groundwater management for the first time, but its implementation rests on a suite of unanswered technical and institutional questions. Vision. UC Water will improve groundwater security and sustainability in California through development and application of ideas that strengthen institutions, generate tools and information, and help to create infrastructure needed for effective groundwater management that benefits multiple stakeholders and needs. Activities. We have near-term plans in three areas, each of which will lead to longer-term activities. June 22,

5 Figure 2. DRAFT conceptual illustration of a vision for the future of California s water data, and inter-relationships between different purposed for water information. For example, a water-rights database, highlighted in the upper left, will need to be designed to ultimately exchange information with other data and modeling efforts Secure and sustainable groundwater institutions: guidance for SGMA implementation. Near-term activities will address the framework and options for groundwater governance by developing white papers and/or peer-reviewed publications that examine available alternatives for governance of Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to manage groundwater resources, as mandated by SGMA. The SGMA enables statewide regulation of groundwater for the first time in California s history. Anticipated outcomes include a better-informed discussion of governance options for effective groundwater management, and ideally decisions for formation of GSAs that better enable decisionmakers to achieve sustainability as defined by SGMA Groundwater information creation and management A near-term activity involves spatial analyses of stormwater runoff and potential for capture linked to managed recharge. Anticipated outcomes include understanding of the potential to capture excess stormwater as a supplemental source for groundwater recharge, including uncertainties, and engagement of regional agencies and stakeholder groups in assessing potential strategies to mitigate climate change and changes in land use A longer-term activity involves development of a groundwater observatory as a natural laboratory for secure and sustainable groundwater management. Anticipated near-term outcomes include one or more commitments to establish an observatory. Long-term outcomes from the observatory will include improved understanding of groundwater flows and changes in storage (including spatial distribution and timing), and integration of real-time data systems as part of holistic water resource management A longer-term activity involves review of tools available and needed to generate data on surface water-groundwater interactions. Anticipated outcomes include understanding of state-of-the-art and June 22,

6 needs for developing data sets that are essential for holistic modeling, resource assessment, and groundwater management Next generation of groundwater infrastructure Near-term activities will involve linking UC Water and IRWM efforts to identify, design, and quantify benefits from regional projects. Anticipated outcomes include: 1. State-of-the-art scientific research that is builds on IRWM projects by having UC Water researchers and partners at the table when these projects are designed, and participating in ongoing operations 2. Successful working relationships between UC Water and other UC researchers and teams and regional water managers and stakeholders, including American River basin, Kings River basin, Pajaro Valley, and other groundwater systems 3. Incorporation of cutting-edge tools and techniques in projects that demonstrate efficacy, to move new tools and methods into established practice 4. Resolution of problems at the frontier of hydrologic research A longer-term activity involves linking groundwater sustainability to habitat and hydrologic restoration. Anticipated outcomes include quantitative valuation of hydrologic benefits from habitat restoration, improved water supply/quality and engagement of water resource managers and habitat stewards A longer-term activity involves development of tools to simultaneously improve groundwater supplies and quality during managed recharge. Anticipated outcomes include improvements to both water supply and water quality in multiple groundwater basins, and incorporation of cutting-edge tools and techniques across the state. Task area 3 -- Headwater management Problem. Vegetation density in Sierra Nevada forests is much higher than it was prior to widespread fire suppression, and land managers are committed to restoring forests to more-sustainable conditions. The aim is to reduce forest densities in a way that lowers the risk of catastrophic wildfire, and thus enhances the expected ecosystem-service benefits. Vision. Our primary research goal is to provide quantitative, credible assessments of the water-cycle impacts of forest vegetation density, structure, disturbance and management actions in the Sierra Nevada (and other forests). A second, possibly equally important goal, is to develop data and tools for further assessments, of sufficient accuracy to guide investments and build partnerships. Details. Quantitative information to enable meeting the goals, across the heterogeneous landscape of the Sierra Nevada, is sorely lacking. Our approach to achieving these goals involves carrying out intensive hydrologic and vegetation measurements, plus hydrologic modeling, of treatment and control catchments, following silviculture prescriptions that provide end-member information for assessments. We will extend assessments across the region using lower-intensity measurements, meta analysis, hydrologic modeling and economic studies. Activites. We have three near-term plans under UC Water Vision for sustainable source-water watershed management. The near-term focus of this activity will be in the Sierra Nevada, and related forested landscapes. We will develop a view paper (white paper expressing our views) outlining achievable options, building on the very detailed studies in progress, including the Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Project (SNAMP), and Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory (SSCZO). Anticipated outcomes include a better-informed discussion of water-supply June 22,

7 benefits of forest management for sustainability, and investment in prototype projects by government, private-sector and non-profit stakeholders Regional assessment of water stress in the Sierra Nevada associated with drought. We aim to address the question: Where should forest watershed treatments be prioritized to sustain flow across the landscape during wet and dry years? To answer this question, we will estimate the changes in evapotranspiration and water yield, as a function of forest biomass, during drought. We will identify areas that are more or less vulnerable to droughts of different durations, and what landscape features contribute to the relative drought resilience or vulnerability. Anticipated outcomes include identification of potential target areas for forest management, plus possible impacts of forest thinning. This will also stimulate a better-informed discussion of water-supply benefits of forest management, and focus discussions of investment in watershed management On-the-ground detailed study of the water impacts of forest management. Meeting the goal of sustainable source-water watershed management in the Sierra Nevada and other areas requires investment decisions that have not yet been made or even identified. Building the knowledge base to achieve the vision and stimulate investments requires a field-measurement program. Our near-term (year 1) goals are to form long-term partnerships with land owners and financial partners, secure initial funding, and initiate one or more long-term studies. Anticipated outcomes include: i) initiation of new research partnerships with ACWA, SWCSC, USFS and others, ii) initiation of new research projects with non-uc Water support. Task area 4 Water-energy nexus Problem. California's water and energy systems are largely managed and regulated independently, but are highly interdependent. Water is used in all phases of energy production, including in hydropower and other electricity generation. Energy is required to pump groundwater, convey water around the state, distribute irrigation water, treat water and deliver water of appropriate quality for diverse human uses, and dispose of drainage and wastewater. California s commitments to move away from fossilenergy use, together with mismatches between the state s water supply and demand call for integrated water-energy solutions that will affect agricultural (food security) and urban (state economy) users. Vision. Through its focus on water information and accounting, UC Water can raise the profile of the linked water and energy use across various sectors in a way that highlights opportunities for change. Details. California's 2013 Water Plan Revisions begin to address this nexus, and water providers across the state are looking at energy use as part of greenhouse-gas reduction goals. Energy use for water could well increase as the state considers the role of desalination in providing reliable supplies for some coastal areas. Activities. We have two near-term plans under UC Water Water footprinting. A near-term activity will be to initiate a water-footprinting analysis in agricultural areas, including one or more of those of interest in task areas 1-2. The goal is to develop a method that is both robust to the data, and meaningful from a decision-making or institutional perspective. To do so, we will develop an extensible tool, initially using irrigation districts as regions of interest, that can quickly calculate water footprints using existing data Water-energy nexus planning. The UC Water team will also engage in longer-term planning for research that can contribute to water-energy nexus planning, including water conservation and reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. Our year 1 activities will mainly involve strengthening working relationships with energy-sector colleagues, developing a research agenda, and exploring opportunities for leveraging and creating research programs under that vision. June 22,