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It’s My Drought! And Yours. Face it.

The California drought has everyone wondering what we can do. Well, we can’t make it rain.

Peter Gleick Testifies on Urban Water Use Efficiency for State Water Resources Control Board

Peter Gleick testified on February 26, 2014 on strategies for addressing the California drought to the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to

Rural Water Systems Struggle in the Good Times and the Bad

The current drought is shaping up to be particularly damaging to small and rural communities.

Finding Light (and Water) at the End of the (Drought) Tunnel, on the Farm and for the Future

With all the flurry of attention surrounding the drought these days, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by the bleak future of California’s water.

National Geographic ScienceBlogs: Learning from Drought: Five Priorities for California

Droughts – especially severe droughts – are terribly damaging events. The human and ecosystem costs can be enormous, as we may relearn during the current California drought.

California’s “Bellwether” Drought

It is time to recognize the serious California drought for what it is: a bellwether of things to come; a harbinger of even more serious challenges to California water resources allocation, management, and use.

Defining Water Scarcity, Water Stress, and Water Risk

Over the past couple years, the Pacific Institute’s Corporate Sustainability Program, in its role with the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate, has been developing the Corporate Water Disclosure Guidelines, which provide a common framework for how companies can report water-related information to stakeholders in a meaningful manner.

Infographic: What to Expect from California’s Drought

While our weather-beaten friends in the Midwest and Northeast braced for near-record low temperatures and polar vortex snowstorms, Californians rang in the New Year with a rainless January.

What Californians Can Expect from the Drought

California has a “Mediterranean” climate, which means that each year it has a concentrated rainy season, followed by a long temperate and dry period. California’s rainy season typically runs from early October to late March, with very little precipitation outside of these months.

The World’s Water, Volume 8

The eighth volume in this highly regarded series, The World’s Water, Volume 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.

Water and Sanitation for All: How to engage with the private sector and create good partnership?

The CEO Water Mandate joined the Sanitation and Water for All Partnership because, increasingly, companies are looking more broadly at how they engage externally with water-related issues, both at the facility and global levels.

Energizing Water Efficiency in California: Applying Energy Efficiency Strategies to Water

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.

Key Issues in Seawater Desalination in California: Marine Impacts

As competition for freshwater resources heightens across the globe, the prospect of using technology to turn unusable seawater into an unending resource is a tempting fix. While seawater desalination is one potential solution to the need for alternative sources of freshwater, more research is needed to understand the impacts of desalination on marine life.

Water Policy: What about All Those Swimming Pools in Los Angeles?

Water policy and water problems always seem to be someone else’s responsibility.

Nigiri at the Landscape Scale: Salmon on Rice Rolls Up Multiple Benefits for Fish and Farms

Salmon on rice, also known as Nigiri, is a popular sushi dish among enthusiasts of the Japanese delicacy known for its tasty simplicity.

Beyond Water Pricing: An Overview of Water Financing Options in California

California’s social and economic well-being is directly tied to financing for reliable, sustainable water. This 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.

Up-scaling Sustainable Agriculture Initiatives on the Water Action Hub

Technology for development has been a hot topic in the development sphere, particularly here in the Bay Area.

“Water to Supply the Land” Describes Irrigated Agriculture in the Colorado River Basin

The Colorado River is a tightly controlled network of dams and diversions, spanning seven states in the U.S. and two in Mexico, providing water for fish and wildlife, agriculture, industry, and cities along the way.

The Sacramento Bee: Why I’m still confused about the proposed tunnels in the Delta

I and my colleagues at the Pacific Institute have worked on California water issues for more than a quarter of a century.

Water Managers and Social Media: How to Get Started

A few of you have reached out to me after I wrote about why water managers should invest in social media. It looks like I’ve managed to convince a few of you that it’s worthwhile, but now what?

Water, Food, and Agriculture

Agriculture uses approximately 70% of the world’s freshwater supply. Agricultural water use is under growing pressure as demands for water increase; competition among cities, farmers, and the environment grows; and as concerns grow over large-scale overdraft of groundwater and water contamination from agricultural runoff. New threats include the challenges of climate change, which is likely to alter both water availability and agricultural water demands.

Water Vlogged: Where There Is No Water Utility

In cities throughout Indonesia, utilities employ some of the latest technologies to supply treated water to millions of residents. However, service still isn’t available to thousands of those who are living in informal neighborhoods (slums) or just outside service networks.

Collective Action on Water – To What End?

The United Nations has designated 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation, which highlights the critical importance of cross-sectoral collaboration in promoting sustainable water management.

Guide to Water-Related Collective Action

Effective collective action is the key to approaching shared water risk successfully. The UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate initiative — which the Pacific Institute is co-secretariat for — released this guide in 2013 in order to provide a step-by-step guide to water resource-related collective action.

Solutions in a World of Peak Water Limits