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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

Ceres 2013 Squeezing a Stone

Pricing Practices in the Electricity Sector to Promote Conservation and Efficiency: Lessons for the Water Sector

Energy and water utilities face fiscal challenges related to declining per-capita demand, as well as mandates for continued reductions in consumption. This study examines a range of electricity pricing practices and policies that California electric utilities have used to remain financially stable as per-capita demand decreased.

Water-Energy Synergies: Coordinating Efficiency Programs in California

All forms of energy, from hydropower to solar panels, use water. Likewise, water supply, treatment, use, and disposal all 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.

AT&T Tool Kit Uncovers Billions of Gallons of Potential Water Savings in Cooling Systems

Coming from a telecommunications company and attending a conference entitled Water Cooperation – Building Partnerships, I find this an appropriate quote with which to open.

Many Agricultural Water Districts Fail to Submit Required Water Management Plans: Laggards Can Learn from Leaders

A few years ago, the California Legislature passed the Water Conservation Act of 2009, which among other things, required large agricultural water providers to begin preparing agricultural water management plans (as urban water providers have done for over a decade).

WRI Insights: Managing the Earth from Space: Satellite and Sensing Technology in Water Management

Andrew Maddocks of the World Resources Institute shares his WRI blog previewing the Stockholm World Water Week session “The Use of New Spatial Information Products for Improved Water Management and Risk Mapping.”

Implementation of the Agricultural Water Management Planning Act: A Review of Agricultural Water Management Plans

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.

Hundreds of Thousands May Not Have Affordable Access to Safe Drinking Water in California

In 2012, California made history by being the first U.S. state to legally acknowledge a human right to water. Yet, what does it mean, in practice, to ensure that all Californians have access to safe drinking water?

Improving Understanding of the Global Hydrologic Cycle: Observation and Analysis of the Climate System: The Global Water Cycle

As society seeks to meet demands for goods and services for a growing population, it is important to improve 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.

Aligning Two Worlds: Business and the Human Right to Water and Sanitation

Available, Affordable, Accessible, Acceptable, and Safe – the cornerstones of the human right to water and sanitation were codified in California in 2012 with the adoption of Assembly Bill 685.

National Geographic ScienceBlogs: Peak Water in the American West

It is no surprise, of course, that the western United States is dry. The entire history of the West can be told (and has been, in great books like Cadillac...