blog post Tackling Cold-water Droughts in a Changing Climate By Jeffrey Mount, Michael Dettinger Sep 16, 2024 Drought comes in many forms in California, but one common type of drought isn’t receiving enough attention: the cold-water drought. Our senior fellow Jeffrey Mount and researcher Mike Dettinger explain what a cold-water drought is—and why it matters so much.
blog post California Continues to Prioritize Water and Climate Programs Despite Budget Cuts By Gokce Sencan Sep 3, 2024 Historic budget surpluses in 2021 and 2022 allowed the Newsom administration to invest $16.3 billion in water and climate projects. Decreased tax revenues in the last two years have necessitated significant budget cuts, however—check out our detailed look at what’s changed.
blog post How Have California’s Water Issues Changed in the Past Thirty Years? By Sarah Bardeen, Ellen Hanak, Jeffrey Mount, Brian Gray Aug 5, 2024 PPIC drew its first breath thirty years ago—back when Ace of Base was topping the charts and the White House had launched its very first webpage. What has changed in California’s water in the past three decades? We sat down with our experts to find out.
blog post Rethinking Stormwater—From Waste to Treasure By Sarah Bardeen Jul 22, 2024 Unmanaged stormwater can be a flood hazard and a contaminant, but when it’s properly managed, it actually can benefit communities by creating green spaces and recharging aquifers. We spoke with CASQA’s Karen Cowan to learn more about this underappreciated resource.
blog post Data Is Key to Protecting California’s Groundwater By Spencer Cole Jun 27, 2024 Implementing the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act has been no simple feat, yet one surprising ally has emerged in the struggle to restore California’s groundwater: data. Learn more about recent improvements and what they mean for water management!
data set PPIC Irrigated Crop Acreage, 2018–22 Jun 24, 2024 This dataset includes a summary of irrigated agricultural lands across California for the years 2018–22. It contains data, sources, and methods used in the June 2024 policy brief Drought and Groundwater Sustainability in California’s Farming Regions.
Fact Sheet Agricultural Land Use in California By Spencer Cole, Ellen Hanak, Caitlin Peterson Jun 24, 2024 About 40% of California’s land—roughly 40 million acres—is used for agriculture. But what does that mean for the state? Our new fact sheet takes advantage of brand-new data to show how the land is used in more detail than ever before.
Policy Brief Policy Brief: Drought and Groundwater Sustainability in California’s Farming Regions By Spencer Cole, Ellen Hanak, Alvar Escriva-Bou, Josué Medellín-Azuara Jun 24, 2024 As the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act approaches its tenth anniversary, it’s clear that California is making progress towards implementation—but the 2020–22 drought shows that much work still lies ahead.