So, What and Who Cares about Renewable Fresh Water Resource in California?
Esmeralda Vargas, member of HydroDetectus, NOAA CESSRST Scholar at the City College of New York
California is a popular tourist location known for its beautiful beaches, the infamous Hollywood sign, and diverse cities like San Francisco. It is also home to a growing population and assorted ecosystems — like the dry Mojave Desert, Central Valley, or forested mountains in Sacramento.
While the West coast is attractive to others such as East coasters for its wonderful climate, it has undergone many changes in the past years. Droughts and wildfires have become a new norm in this once peaceful state, and along with these matters water, specifically, renewable fresh water . With warmer weather, smaller snowpack, and earlier melt from the Sierra Nevada mountains, California has suffered water shortages and will suffer more in the future.
The lack of renewable freshwater resources (RFWR) is concerning not only for communities that need drinking water but for other sectors that rely on steady supply such as farmers, water managers, and firefighters. For example, low flow from the rivers and streams make it hard for farmers to water their crops and ensure a profitable year. Dam s also heavily rely on steady flow and water pressure to carry out efficient energy production. Firefighters desperately need high surface water levels to fight off wildfires. With wildfires now happening regularly, it is even more important to have steady renewable freshwater levels for aerial water tankers.
The need to know levels of RFWR for current and future water years is crucial for managers to fairly and effectively plan the distribution of water to different sectors to ensure they can carry out their day-to-day activities. Picture a cup of water that needs to be shared by four people. I n this case, the four individuals are dam managers, farmers, firefighters, and homeowners. How can one help predict how much RFWR will be available in that cup next month, season, year, and decade? How can one equitably share that cup of water among the sectors? While this use case represents just four sectors, the reality is such that several branches rely on California’s water. In fact, California’s water futures are now trading on NASDAQ! Think about the existing competition , and one will see the many societal and economic conflicts therein. So, what can be done to effectively share that one cup of water? This is where HydroDetectus comes in. Our tool leverages publically available data , including a range of climate and socio-economic datasets, to model behavior of renewable freshwater resources fluctuations across the state and at different time scales.
Decision makers can use these predictions to plan and distribute sufficient water to all sectors and ensure they carry out their day-to-day activities. This in turn also helps the price of water stay stable, as better planning and preparing can help regulate the value of water as RFWR is set to become more insecure in the future.
