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Commentary: Californians Need to Do More to Prepare for Wet Years

By Letitia Grenier, Ellen Hanak

Climate change is supercharging the extremes of drought and flood in California. But our infrastructure and institutions remain woefully underprepared for rising flood risk and increasingly erratic rainfall. It’s time to take this threat—and this opportunity—seriously and accelerate preparations.

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A Look Back at 2023’s Volatile Year in Water

By Letitia Grenier

Volatility was the name of the game in 2023, as drought-weary California suddenly found itself inundated by atmospheric rivers—and the changes kept coming. We look back on California’s weird (and sometimes wonderful) year in water.

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Addressing Groundwater Overdraft in the Sacramento Valley

By Spencer Cole, Kyle Greenspan, Andrew Ayres

As the Sacramento Valley seeks to bring its groundwater basins into balance under SGMA, the valley’s groundwater sustainability agencies recently submitted plans to manage overdraft. Do the numbers add up? Our researchers take a look.

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Video: Stewarding California’s Wet Years

By Sarah Bardeen

Wet weather brought relief to our parched state last winter. And while full reservoirs are great, is there room to improve California’s wet year management? At our fall conference last week, three panels of experts gave a resounding yes—and then offered insights on how to improve. Read our recap!

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Stewarding California’s Wet Years

California has made great strides in preparing for a drier, hotter future, but it remains a challenge to harness the bounty of wet years while also reducing flood risk. How did California’s water sector manage the unusually wet conditions of the 2023 water year—and what lessons can we glean for the future? We speak with three panels of experts to find out.

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Measuring Groundwater Overdraft in the Sacramento Valley

By Spencer Cole, Kyle Greenspan, Andrew Ayres

As the Sacramento Valley works to bring its groundwater basins into balance, we review the valley’s groundwater sustainability plans to understand how they’re estimating overdraft in their basins—and to see just how much overpumping they found.

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Priorities for California’s Water

By Jeffrey Mount, Letitia Grenier, Ellen Hanak, Caitlin Peterson ...

California has made great strides in preparing for a drier, hotter future, but it remains a challenge to harness the bounty of wet years while also reducing flood risk. How did California’s water sector manage the unusually wet 2023 water year—and what lessons can we glean for the future?

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The Weird Weather of 2023: Better Get Used to It

By Jeffrey Mount, Gokce Sencan, Michael Dettinger

Water Year 2023 comes to an end on September 30. For most weather-watchers, this was an unusual year, with very wet conditions following several very dry years—but are the frequency and intensity of these variations increasing as the planet’s temperature rises? And if so, what might be the implications for water management? We take a look.

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Video: Managing Water and Farmland Transitions in the San Joaquin Valley

By Sarah Bardeen

For the past seven years, the PPIC Water Policy Center has been researching how the San Joaquin Valley can adapt to a future with less water. On September 20, we held a special half-day event that drew together an array of growers, water managers, agency staff, and others to discuss how to best manage the changes ahead. Read our writeup—and watch the videos!

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Commentary: Water-use Challenges Affecting Farmers Means Reinventing the San Joaquin Valley

By Ellen Hanak, Caitlin Peterson

To ensure the San Joaquin Valley’s future, groundwater overpumping has to end—and some 500,000 acres of farmland will likely need to come out of intensively irrigated production. But unplanned, haphazard fallowing would harm the valley. In our Fresno Bee commentary, we share insights on how to protect the valley’s residents, agriculture, and environment, drawing on over seven years of research.

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