Living in neighborhoods compounded by violence and simultaneous gentrification, Oakland youth – with the support of the Pacific Institute and Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) – have released the “foto-novela” Forgotten Voices to share their experiences and vision for creating opportunities for men of color.
A new survey of major U.S. corporations released by the Pacific Institute and VOX Global, titled Bridging Concern with Action: Are US Companies Prepared for Looming Water Challenges?, reveals that most companies believe water challenges will significantly worsen in the next five years. However, the majority of companies surveyed do not appear to be planning corollary increases in the breadth and scale of their water risk management practices. In fact, nearly 70 percent of responding companies said their current level of investment in water management is sufficient.
As California’s severe drought has worsened, there has been persistent debate about the links between drought and climate change (or indeed any extreme weather event). Three key, but very different, questions are often confused: Has climate change caused the current drought? Is it already influencing or affecting the drought (no matter its cause)? And how will climate change affect future droughts?
Dr. Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute and one of the world’s leading experts on freshwater issues, testified on February 26, 2014 on strategies for addressing the California drought to the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). Recognizing that the drought is having far-reaching effects that are likely to intensify if dry conditions persist, Gleick offered key recommendations from the Pacific Institute for changes in strategy, policy, and approach to greatly expand the efficiency of urban water use in California.
The newest volume in this highly regarded series, The World’s Water, vol. 8 features chapters on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), water footprints, sustainable water jobs, and desalination financing, among other timely issues. Water briefs provide concise updates on topics including the Dead Sea and the role of water in the Syrian conflict. Pacific Institute President Peter Gleick is series editor, with coauthors Newsha Ajami, Juliet Christian-Smith, Heather Cooley, Kristina Donnelly, Julian Fulton, Mai-Lan Ha, Matthew Heberger, Eli Moore, Jason Morrison, Stuart Orr, Peter Schulte, and Veena Srinivasan.
As a dry December accentuates the stress on California’s limited water supplies, the success of the state’s energy sector in implementing efficiency programs offers valuable lessons to the water sector. A new report from the Pacific Institute examines the rules, regulations, and policies that promote energy efficiency and finds models for water management in drivers like the energy sector’s appliance standards, building codes, pricing policies, and utility-sponsored efficiency programs.
Desalination, like other major industrial processes, has environmental impacts that must be understood and mitigated. A new report from the Pacific Institute examines effects on the marine environment associated with the construction and long-term operation of seawater desalination plants, including withdrawing water from the ocean and discharging the highly concentrated brine.
California’s social and economic well-being is directly tied to financing for reliable, sustainable water. A new study from the Pacific Institute explores stable and sustainable sources of funding for water projects as a key to long-term solutions, and finds California’s increased dependence on general obligation (GO) bonds in funding water systems is unreliable and costly to both the state and taxpayers.
The UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate initiative has released the Guide to Water-Related Collective Action, which provides a step-by-step approach to water-resource-related collective action. The Guide, finalized after a year of testing and research on a beta version, helps businesses develop strategy focused on effective, sustainable, and equitable external engagements related to water.
Because water utilities are dependent on the sale of water to recoup costs, reduced sales can result in deficits – and per capita water demand in California has been stagnant or decreasing for the past several decades. Over the coming years, California municipal water utilities are required to reduce water use by 20%. Thus, the “new normal” or an era of declining demand and rising costs is a trend that is likely to continue. Water utilities can learn from a number of electricity pricing practices to help adapt to this “new normal” while staying fiscally solvent and providing fair prices.
All forms of energy – from hydropower to solar panels – use water to extract and process the fuels, construct the processing facilities, or generate the electricity. Likewise, water supply, treatment, use, and disposal use considerable amounts of energy. Coordinating water-energy efficiency efforts provides a significant opportunity to achieve greater savings for both water and energy utilities and for their customers, according to a new study from the Pacific Institute: Water-Energy Synergies: Coordinating Efficiency Programs in California.
Twenty-four of California’s agricultural water districts have submitted agricultural water management plans, leaving 55 districts out of compliance with the requirement of the Water Conservation Act of 2009, according to a new joint analysis issued today by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pacific Institute. This represents a 30% compliance rate, meaning there is much work to be done to ensure sustainable water management for the state.
This chapter from the book Climate Science for Serving Society: Research, Modeling and Prediction Priorities addresses how understanding the complexity of the hydrological cycle is central to understanding a wide range of other planetary geological, atmospheric, chemical, and physical processes. Water is also central to other core economic, social, and political issues such as poverty, health, hunger, environmental sustainability, conflict, and economic prosperity. As society seeks to meet demands for goods and services for a growing population, we must improve our understanding of the fundamental science of the hydrological cycle, its links with related global processes, and the role it plays in ecological and societal well-being. At the same time, human influences on the character and dynamics of the water cycle are growing rapidly. Central to solving these challenges is the need to improve our systems for managing, sharing, and analyzing all kinds of water data, and our ability to model and forecast aspects of both the hydrological cycle and the systems we put in place to manage human demands for water. We need to improve our understanding of each of the components of the hydrological water balance at all scales, and to understand the spatial and temporal variability in the components of the water cycle. This chapter provides a short summary of current World Climate Research Program (WCRP) efforts and addresses four primary research challenges:
Supplying water to customers is a business. As in any business, water sales revenues need to be accurately forecasted and …
Water Rates: Conservation and Revenue Stability – Issue Brief MORE
A new pilot study in California shows many households, even within affluent communities, routinely spend over the affordability threshold of 2 percent of their household income on their water bill. The number of water systems with “unaffordable” rates varies by region and measure used – which has important implications for policy makers.
The Safe Return Project – a participatory action research process in Richmond, California involving formerly incarcerated residents in carrying out research and organizing to increase opportunities for community reintegration – released the report Employment and Community Reintegration in Contra Costa County. The publication, produced in collaboration with the Pacific Institute and CCISCO, presents original research, including survey findings that 78% of formerly incarcerated Richmond residents are unemployed, and two out of three have not held a single job since their release.
Growing pressure on global water resources is having major impacts on our social, economic, and environmental well-being. But despite growing recognition that the world’s water-related challenges extend beyond national and regional boundaries, there has been little-to-no discussion about global water governance that looks more holistically at shared water challenges. A new report from the Pacific Institute examines structures and approaches needed to meet the challenge of sustainable water management in an interconnected world.
All water service providers must periodically correspond with their customers as well as state and local decision makers. In times …
The Pacific Institute’s revised Gearing Up for Action: A Curriculum Guide for Freight Transport Justice (en español, Preparándose para la Acción) is an important advocacy tool to build the power and capacity of communities to participate in decision making around freight transport issues. The activities have been designed to help community leaders engage groups of community members to learn more about freight transport and connect it to their own lives. The goal of our freight transport justice work is to reduce the adverse health impacts of freight transportation on low-income neighborhoods of color closest to freight transport hubs, and to increase the share of the benefits that residents of these communities enjoy.
Preparándose para la Acción: Una Guía Curricular para Lograr Justicia en el Transporte de Carga del Pacific Institute ha sido revisada siendo una importante herramienta de abogacía para construir el poder y la capacidad de comunidades para participar en la toma de decisiones en cuanto a temas del transporte de carga. Las actividades han sido diseñadas para ayudar a los líderes comunitarios en involucrar a grupos de miembros de la comunidad para aprender sobre el transporte de carga conectándolo a sus propias vidas. La meta de nuestro trabajo de justicia del transporte de carga es reducir los impactos adversos a la salud que el transporte de carga tiene en vecindarios de bajo recursos y de color que están cerca de centros de transporte de carga, y para aumentar los beneficios que residentes de estas comunidades pueden disfrutar.
nteractive online map showing the coastal flood and erosion hazard zones from our study. You can also display the location and attributes of health-care facilities, schools, fire and police stations, wastewater plants, and EPA-listed facilities that are vulnerable to coastal flooding.
Water service providers are facing new challenges in forecasting and preparing for future water demand, staying fiscally solvent while providing fair prices, incorporating conservation and efficiency, and communicating clearly to customers about rates and service. Beginning in 2012, the Pacific Institute conducted an extensive survey and series of workshops on water rates and finances to better understand how water is priced by more than a thousand different water providers in California, both public and private – and to help agencies identify effective rate-making strategies.
El Río Colorado, derivado y canalizado, así como intensivamente controlado, sólo en raras ocasiones (<10 por ciento de los días) lleva suficiente agua para fluir al menos 32 km más allá de la Presa Morelos, la última presa sobre el río, cerca de la frontera California/Arizona/Baja California. El corredor limítrofe del río – el tramo de aproximadamente 36 km de Andrade a San Luis que separa Baja California de Arizona – es generalmente considerado la parte más alta del remanente del delta del Río Colorado, con algunas de las zonas más extensas de álamos y sauces nativos que quedan en el bajo Río Colorado y una de las pocas áreas donde el río aún tiene, ocasionalmente, agua suficiente para sobrepasar sus márgenes y alcanzar su planicie aluvial. Por este motivo, durante más de una década, se ha generado un enorme interés en la restauración del tramo limítrofe. En años recientes, sin embargo, ha habido una creciente preocupación de que el deterioro en las condiciones del agua subterránea en la parte baja del tramo limítrofe, coarte el éxito de los esfuerzos de restauración.
The Colorado River, diverted and channelized and intensively managed, only rarely has enough water to flow even 20 miles past Morelos Dam, the last dam on the river, near the California/Arizona/Baja California border. The river’s limitrophe reach – the roughly 22.5 mile stretch from Andrade to San Luis that separates Baja California from Arizona – is generally considered the uppermost extent of the remnant Colorado River delta, with some of the most extensive stands of native cottonwoods and willows left on the lower Colorado River and one of the few areas where the river still occasionally has enough water to exceed its banks and reach its floodplain. Because of this, there has been intense restoration interest in the limitrophe reach for more than a decade. In recent years, however, concern has grown that deteriorating groundwater conditions in the lower portion of the limitrophe will limit the success of restoration efforts.
Chair and members of the Assembly Select Committee: thank you for inviting me to offer testimony today on the economic risks facing the State of California from accelerating sea-level rise. The reality of climate change will affect California in many ways, from rising temperatures to changes in fire frequency, drought and flood risks, threats to agricultural production and our water resources, and especially, growing damage and destruction along our extensive coastline from rising sea levels.
The Colorado River, recently named America’s most endangered river, supports millions of people in the American Southwest and northwest Mexico and helps irrigate millions of acres of land. Yet demands on the river already exceed the river’s average supply, a situation that is projected to get worse in coming years as climate change reduces runoff at the same time that fast-growing southwest cities demand more water. Irrigated agriculture currently consumes more than 70% of the water supply within the Colorado River basin, making it critical for more efficient water use.
Interest in seawater desalination in California is high, with 17 plants proposed along the California coast and two in Mexico. But removing the salt from seawater is an energy-intensive process that consumes more energy per gallon than most other water supply and treatment options. A new report from the Pacific Institute series Key Issues for Seawater Desalination in California describes the energy requirements and associated greenhouse gas emissions for desalinated water and evaluates the impact of short- and long-term energy price variability on the cost of desalinated water.
As Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina have taught us, climate change is a global process with very localized impacts that can profoundly affect community health and quality of life. These localized impacts, ranging from extreme temperatures to rising sea levels, will disproportionately affect vulnerable populations such as the elderly, renters, low-income residents, limited English speakers, those with pre-existing medical conditions, and those without health or home insurance. Yet the same communities considered most vulnerable to climate change also contain a wealth of knowledge about how to creatively marshal social networks, culturally-based practices and skills, and limited resources to weather hard times.
Oakland residents can take steps to protect their communities in the face of climate change impacts. Are You a Climate Change Survivor? is the fun new activity workbook, game, and handy fact sheets from the Pacific Institute and Oakland Climate Action Coalition (OCAC) that provide engaging activities to raise awareness about climate change impacts like heat waves, flooding, and poor air quality – and the tools that community members can use to build safety and resilience.
The Pacific Institute released a comprehensive study, Sustainable Water Jobs: A National Assessment of Water-Related Green Job Opportunities. The report finds that proactive investments increasing efficient water use and re-use will both address growing problems associated with drought, flooding, and contamination and create jobs in a wide range of professions. The study identifies 136 different kinds of jobs involved in implementing sustainable water strategies, from plumbers to landscapers, engineers to irrigation specialists. Thirty-seven of these job types are also projected to have high growth in the overall economy, with each projected to have more than 100,000 job openings across industries by 2020.
The food justice movement has deep roots in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the organization Planting Justice is utilizing …
Sustainable Water Management for Urban Agriculture: Planting Justice, Oakland MORE
The Pacific Institute has released the first comprehensive assessment of California’s water footprint, providing an important perspective on the interconnections between everyday activities and impacts to water resources – both at home and around the world.
Economics – including both the cost of the water produced and the complex financial arrangements needed to develop a project – are key factors that will determine the ultimate success and extent of desalination in California. New research from the Pacific Institute, Key Issues for Seawater Desalination in California: Cost and Financing, assesses desalination costs, financing, and risks associated with desalination projects. The Pacific Institute analysis finds that the cost to produce water from a desalination plant is high but subject to significant variability, with recent estimates for plants proposed in the state ranging from $1,900 to more than $3,000 per acre-foot.“Seawater desalination remains among the most expensive water-supply options available, although the public and decision-makers must exercise caution when comparing costs among different projects,” said Heather Cooley, co-director of the Pacific Institute Water Program and lead author of the report. “In some cases, costs are reported in ways that are not directly comparable. For example, some report the cost of the desalination plant alone, while others include the cost for additional infrastructure needed to integrate the desalination plant into the rest of the water system. Some estimates include costs to finance the project, while others don’t. Even when there is an apples-to-apples comparison, there are a number of site- and project-specific factors that make cost comparisons difficult, such as energy, land, and labor costs and the availability of visible and hidden subsidies.”
An emerging theme of the framing project from its inception in 2009 was the growing awareness of the significance and complexity of the interactions between voluntary, non-governmental sustainability standards and national and international governance, raising fundamental questions about standards development, use, legitimacy and sustainability.
The California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply (CRWFS) released its latest report, From Storage to Retention: Expanding California’s Options for Meeting Its Water Needs. Pacific Institute’s agriculture and water expert Dr. Juliet Christian-Smith, also a member of the CRWFS, contributed to the newest report which builds on earlier work focused on agricultural water stewardship, and argues for an expansion of approaches to storing water that increase supply reliability for specialty crop agricultural production and other beneficial uses while protecting ecosystem health.
The global Water Action Hub from the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate is the world’s first on-line platform to unite companies, governments, NGOs, and other stakeholders on a range of critical water projects in specific river basins around the planet. With the launch of the Water Action Hub is the release of a beta version of the CEO Water Mandate’s publication Guide to Water-Related Collective Action, which provides a step-by-step approach to water-resource-related collective action.
Climate change will have significant impacts in California not just on water supply, but also on water demand. A new, free tool from the Pacific Institute* helps water managers to forecast urban water demand with four global climate change models and compare different possible futures to the year 2100 by altering greenhouse gas emissions, population projections, conservation and efficiency measures, and more. The research shows climate change will cause increased water use in California’s cities and suburbs, even as water supply is expected to diminish.
Expectations that business will respect, and in some cases support or help fulfill, internationally recognized human rights have increased over the past decade. Businesses have recognized the importance of effective management systems in responding to these expectations and protecting core resources needed in their own activities. The report Bringing a Human Rights Lens to Corporate Water Stewardship: Results of Initial Research is part of a project by the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate which seeks to develop practical guidance for businesses on implementing their responsibility to respect the human right to water and sanitation.
In the new book A Twenty-First Century U.S. Water Policy, published by Oxford University Press, Pacific Institute researchers present clear and readable analysis and recommendations for a new federal water policy to confront our national and global challenges.
On March 13th, 2012, the Pacific Institute, a non-profit and non-partisan research organization, prepared and submitted comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) ofthe Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery, and Storage Project. In our comment we raised the following concerns and limitations with the DEIR
New research shows that addressing social vulnerability – the susceptibility of a given community to harm from a hazard – in climate change policies and response strategies is critical to California’s future. With some degree of climate change unavoidable, communities must begin developing and implementing adaptation plans, and integrating social vulnerability into their strategies is key. California faces a range of impacts from global climate change, including increases in extreme heat, wildfires, and coastal flooding and erosion. Changes are also likely to occur in air quality, water availability, and the spread of infectious diseases. Social and economic factors – like age, race, income, lack of access to a vehicle or other means of transportation – directly affect a community’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate impacts. The report Social Vulnerability to Climate Change in California identifies geographic areas within the state with such heightened risk to projected climate impacts.
The Water–Energy Simulator (WESim) is an easy-to-use analytical tool that can be used to evaluate the energy and greenhouse gas implications of water management decisions. The Excel-based model allows the user to explore a range of possible scenarios, such as increased demand for water resources, the development of alternative water and energy sources, and needed water treatment improvements resulting from emerging contaminants and stricter water-quality guidelines. WESim can be applied by individual water and energy utilities, groups of utilities, and policymakers and decision makers. A WESim User Manual and report, Implications of Future Water Supply Sources for Energy Demands, are provided, as well.
A new analysis based in Oakland, Calif. identifies more than 50 strategies for building community resilience and adapting to climate change impacts such as extreme heat, flooding, wildfire, poor air quality, and rising food, water, and electricity prices. The study, Community-Based Climate Adaptation Planning: Case Study of Oakland, California, from the Pacific Institute and in partnership with the Oakland Climate Action Coalition, provides a detailed analysis of climate impacts, vulnerabilities, and adaptation options to inform the development of a comprehensive and equitable climate adaptation plan effort that engages local communities in the process.
Rising sea levels from global climate change pose a serious threat to the highly developed coastal communities of the San …
In 2006, there were an estimated 21 active seawater desalination proposals along the California coast. Since then, only one project, a small plant in Sand City, has been permitted and built. Another – Poseidon’s Carlsbad Seawater Desalination Plant – has secured the necessary federal, state, and local permits, although project financing remains uncertain. Interest in seawater desalination remains high in California and many agencies continue to conduct technical and environmental studies and pilot projects to determine whether to develop full-scale facilities.
Fracking – a process to improve the production of oil and gas wells – has generated tremendous controversy in recent years. There are daily and confusing media reports from outlets across the United States and other countries, including Canada, South Africa, Australia, France and England. While fracking is hailed by some as a game-changer that promises increased national energy independence, job creation and lower energy prices, it has also been severely criticized by others because of serious and unresolved environmental, social and public health concerns.
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has generated growing controversy in the past few years. New research from the Pacific Institute finds the real issues around its impacts on water are shared by stakeholders from government to industry to environmental groups – and point to the need for better and more transparent information in order to clearly assess the key water-related risks and develop sound policies to minimize those risks.
While much research has been produced in recent years on how water use and pollution can exacerbate conflict, a new report focuses more broadly on the ways conflict and high-risk situations can affect water systems and resources directly – as well as on the planning, construction, operation, and management of water systems. The UN Global Compact and the Pacific Institute released the report Water as a Casualty of Conflict: Threats to Business and Society in High-Risk Areas, in advance of the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum, to be held June 15-17, 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Water rates in the United States are not typically understood as a human rights issue, but utility bills can be …
Historically, water demand forecasts have been determined by estimating current per-capita water consumption multiplied by expected future population. However, this …
