Managing Water Resources for Sustainability in California

Fraser Shilling, Ph.D.1, Abdul Khan, Ph.D., P.E.2, Rich Juricich M.S., P.E3, Vance Fong4, Don Hodge5 1 Research Scientist, Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, fmshilling@ucdavis.edu 2 Supervising Water Resources Engineer, CA Dept of Water Resources, akhan@water.ca.gov 3 Member ASCE, Principal Water Resources Engineer, CA Dept of Water Resources, juricich@water.ca.gov 4 Manager, Environmental Indicator program, U.S. EPA Region 9, MTS-6,  Fong.Vance@EPA.Gov 5 Agriculture Program, U.S. EPA Region, hodge.don@epa.gov Introduction The mission of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is to manage the water resources of California in cooperation with other agencies, to benefit the State’s people, and to protect, restore, and enhance the natural and human environments.  With a growing recognition that California’s water systems are finite, and faced with impacts from climate change, growing population, and more stringent environmental requirements, decision-makers, water managers, and planners are becoming increasingly aware of the need to both sustainably manage water and respond to changing availability and constraints on water. In the California Water Plan Updates 2005 and 2009, DWR refocused attention on the sustainability of California’s water systems and ecosystems in light of current water management practices and expected future changes. However, one recurring question from stakeholders has been, “How can we ascertain that the objectives of the California Water Plan, associated resource management strategies, and recommended actions would lead to sustainable water use and supply for the State and its ten hydrologic regions?” To respond to the above concern, one of the guiding principles established for decision-making in the California Water Plan Update 2009 was: “Determine values for economic, environmental, and social benefits, costs, and tradeoffs to base investment decisions on sustainability indicators.” However, there are major impediments to evaluating the state’s water sustainability using sustainability indicators. These include inconsistent terminologies and definitions used; absence of a systematic analytic framework and methodologies for quantification of water sustainability indicators; potential inconsistent social/political support for using indicators; and a potential lack of data to undertake the appropriate analysis to assess sustainability of water resources through the development and on-going tracking of a set of sustainability indicators. As part of the California Water Plan Update 2013, the DWR, in collaboration with the University of California - Davis and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9, has developed an analytical and quantitative framework, and a set of preliminary sustainability indicators. The developed framework is intended to help us identify, compute, and evaluate a set of relevant sustainability indicators that would help monitor progress towards sustainability of natural and human water systems. What is Sustainability? The word “sustainability” has been widely used in recent years for a wide variety of planning activities, and often no definition is provided with its use. The need for “sustainable development” or “sustainable use of resources” may have somewhat different meanings depending on the perspective of the user. A system or process that is sustainable can generally continue indefinitely. A system that is sustainable should meet today’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. A sustainable system generally provides for the economy, the ecosystem, and social well-being and equity. The California Water Plan includes a vision statement laying the foundation for how California can be sustainable in water use and management. The vision is the following: California has healthy watersheds and integrated, reliable, and secure water resources and management systems that: Enhance public health, safety, and quality of life in all its communities; Sustain economic growth, business vitality, and agricultural productivity; and Protect and restore California’s unique biological diversity, ecological values, and cultural heritage. In order to help meet the vision of the California Water Plan, the following definition for sustainability has been adopted: Water sustainability is the dynamic state of water use and supply that meets today’s needs without compromising the long-term capacity of the natural and human aspects of the water system to meet the needs of future generations. Water Sustainability Indicators Indicators are qualitative or quantitative parameters selected to represent parts of ecological, social, or economic systems. Indicators provide a way to collect information about a condition and to report and evaluate changes over time. Sustainability indicators measure the condition of parts of the systems, relative to a desired and an undesired condition for those parts. They also measure performance of our actions. Finally, they are useful in evaluating our distance from and progress toward a range of sustainability, which is assuming that sustainability has no fixed point. Indicators provide the connection between statements of intent (e.g., objectives) and measurable aspects of natural and human systems. Because of the importance of the indicators in determining findings and basing decisions, the indicators should be carefully chosen. Explicit criteria must be used to select indicators to ensure that the resulting evaluation is robust and usable in decision-making. For Update 2013 of the California Water Plan more than 80 indicators were chosen from an original list of >1,000, which were derived from a review of sustainability and water system indicators from around the world. The indicators were chosen to both measure progress toward the goals and objectives, as well as to represent five domains or categories of natural and human systems: water supply reliability, water quality, ecosystem health, adaptive and sustainable management, and social benefits and equity. The California Water Sustainability Indicators Framework The California Water Sustainability Indicators Framework (Framework)  has been developed to assess and monitor progress towards water sustainability through a set of relevant indicators. The Framework uses the structure of a vision-goals-objectives-indicators nested hierarchy (Figure 1). It is organized into a series of steps and each step builds on the previous one. Completing each step leads to subsequent steps and all steps are necessary for a full evaluation of water sustainability. A sequence of steps begins with developing vision, goals, and objectives (going from left to right), identifying indicators for each objective, evaluating indicator condition relative to reference conditions, and reporting indicator conditions to inform knowledge development and policy decisions. Thus indicators can be used to assess and monitor achievement of objectives and progress toward goals. The foundation of the Framework is a set of sustainability goals and associated objectives. The water sustainability goals and objectives included in the Framework derive their meaning and much of their text from the California Water Plan statements of intent as reflected in its goals, objectives, and resource management strategies, but attempt to make clearer connections with the idea of sustainability across ecosystem, social system, and economic system. Thus the Framework can be used to evaluate whether meeting the goals, objectives, and resource management strategies of the California Water Plan leads towards sustainable water use and supply in California. The eight sustainability goals of the Framework and the associated objectives are furnished in Table 1. Conclusion DWR is charged with managing the water resources of California in cooperation with other agencies, to benefit the State’s people, and to protect, restore, and enhance the natural and human environments.  For Update 2013 of the California Water Plan, DWR has developed an analytical framework for evaluating water sustainbility and is applying the framework in statewide and regional scale pilot studies to test the how water sustainability indicators can help monitor progress towards sustainable management of California’s natural and human water systems.  Results of these pilot studies will be presented in Update 2013 due out in December of 2013.