Drought Preparedness Planning & Drought Response in California

Jeanine Jones, CDWR

Lessons Learned from Past California Droughts

• Impacts are highly site-specific, and vary depending on the ability of water users to invest in reliability

• Shortages stem from both hydrologic & regulatory drought• Small water systems on fractured rock groundwater sources

are most at risk of public health and safety impacts• Larger urban water agencies can manage 3-4 years of

drought with minimal impacts to their customers• The greatest economic impacts of drought in California have

been associated with wildfire and forestry damages, not with urban & agricultural water uses

Tools for Managing Drought

• California’s water infrastructure (which facilitates water transfers & exchanges)

• Groundwater• Institutional framework

for preparedness • Response actions such as

outreach & conservation

Institutional Framework

• Historically, $billions in state funding to local agencies to improve water supply and demand management

• Urban water management planning requirements, water shortage contingency plans

• Urban & agricultural conservation planning requirements

• Statutory framework for facilitating water transfers, water recycling

Drought Management Challenges Specific to California

• Water conveyance across the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta

• Ability to monitor statewide groundwater conditions and impacts of pumping (land subsidence) (because groundwater not regulated at state level)

Broadly Shared Drought Management Challenges – Small Water Systems

• Isolated rural communities• Systems on fractured rock groundwater• Small groundwater basins w/ minimal

recharge/storage capacities• Impacted soonest and to greatest extent

by droughts, typically operate with little margin for error

• Experience actual public health & safety impacts -- lack of water for human consumption, sanitation, fire protection

• Lack SDWA’s “technical, managerial, financial” capacity

Broadly Shared Drought Management Challenges – Drought Prediction

• NWS operational weather forecasts – out to about 10 days, good skill

• NOAA CPC outlooks for precipitation (30 days – 1 year), not skillful/useful for resource management

• Improved ISI forecasting would be hugely useful for drought management (longer lead time for reservoir ops, planning water transfers, budgeting conservation programs, etc)!

What Can Federal Research Programs Do To Help Improve Drought Management?

• Improve ISI forecasting!!!!– Advance research on MJO and ARs; ARs play big

role in California’s water year type– Improve understanding & predictability of

decadal-scale natural variability (high priority for Colorado River Basin)

– Expand weather/climate monitoring to support week 3/week 4 WX forecasts

• NASA – timely provide satellite-based InSAR observations (e.g., DESDynI mission) that allow monitoring of land subsidence due to groundwater extraction