Policy Brief Policy Brief: Tracking Where Water Goes in a Changing Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta By Greg Gartrell, Jeffrey Mount, Ellen Hanak May 16, 2022 The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta supplies water to roughly 30 million Californians, over 6 million acres of farmland, and countless ecosystems. But the watershed’s climate is changing: recent decades have seen record warmth, higher evaporation, and declining snowpack. We track where the water is going—and how to adapt.
blog post Video: Water in Silicon Valley By Caitrin Chappelle Apr 30, 2015 As Silicon Valley has transitioned from fruits and nuts to bits and bytes, its water challenges have evolved—along with the approaches to dealing with them.
Report California Coastal Management with a Changing Climate By Ellen Hanak, Georgina Moreno Nov 18, 2008 As a result of climate change, California is likely to face significant challenges to coastal management along the ocean coastline and within the San Francisco Estuary, and tough tradeoffs exist. For example, one of the primary means of protecting buildings and infrastructure from sea level rise and increased storm surges is to “harden” the coastline with coastal armoring—but this strategy is detrimental to beaches, public access, and habitat. Priorities for coastal management include inventorying coastal resources, assessing vulnerabilities, and experimenting with alternatives to armoring. This report was prepared as part of the Preparing California for a Changing Climate project.
blog post Local Measures Address Water, Fire in the Midterm Elections By Gokce Sencan, Caitrin Chappelle Nov 26, 2018 The midterms saw 33 local measures go to the voters that addressed issues ranging from flood protection to fire resilience.
blog post How Permitting Slows Ecosystem Recovery and Climate Resilience Projects By Lori Pottinger Jul 13, 2020 California’s complex permitting process slows efforts to restore ecosystems at a time when healthy natural systems are needed more than ever. We talked to Letitia Grenier of the San Francisco Estuary Institute about how to improve the process.
interactive Delta Island Flooding (With Repairs) Jul 1, 2008 This animation depicts how the Delta may change over time as a result of levee failures from earthquakes and floods. Islands that lie below sea level will flood after levee failures (becoming blue). Islands with sufficiently high land and asset values are repaired each time they are flooded (becoming white again). Other islands remain flooded.
