Publications, Media and News
Working Papers
Instituting Integration: Findings of the Comparative Groundwater Law & Policy Program's Workshop
Water in the West Working Paper 3, May 2012, by Rebecca Nelson
This report and policy-makers' brief synthesize the results of the inaugural workshop of the comparative groundwater Law and Policy's Program, held October 17-19, 2011 at Stanford University. The workshop brought together groundwater managers and experts from the western U.S. and Australia to share experiences and practical lessons in integrated groundwater management. Workshop participants used case studies to discuss key challenges in law and policy for managing the impacts of pumping groundwater on rivers, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems, and law and policy needed to take advantage of aquifer storage and recovery. The findings of this workshop and paper highlight promising areas for creative policy development - in particular, programs that allow pumpers to offset the impacts of groundwater pumping, tools to help agencies consider how wells may impact ecosystems, and approaches to stakeholders collaboration - and the key issues that policy-makers must confront in pursuing them.
Uncommon Innovation: Developments in Groundwater Management Planning in California
The homegrown innovations uncovered by this report point the way forward for local agencies to better manage groundwater in California, and the way towards an updated and improved State policy structure to encourage them to do so. Strengthening California’s legislation for groundwater management planning, informed by current best practice, would provide a path towards better groundwater management and retain the State’s historical focus on local agencies driving local change. The local planning actions uncovered by this report are not only innovative, they are also practical, down-to-earth and doable—they are being undertaken by different types of local agencies, with widely varying resources, across the State, right now. (Adobe PDF document)
Measuring Performance of Water Systems in California
The state of information about water in California is woefully inadequate. Given that California has long been a center for innovation in the world’s emerging information economy and water is among the state’s most precious resources, this is nothing short of shocking. What we have here is not just a failure to communicate. It is a failure to gather, make available, analyze, communicate, and use information to sustainably manage our water systems in California. We have the information resources and performance measurement frameworks we need to change that.. (Adobe PDF document)
Solution Briefs
Integrated Regional Management: Solving the Groundwater Challenge
The Challenge: Reducing the impact of groundwater depletion on water users, overlying landowners, and groundwater- dependent ecosystems. (Adobe PDF document)
Wastewater as a Valuable Resource
The Challenge: Development of cost-effective technology for recovery of clean water, energy, and materials from wastewater. (Adobe PDF document)
Challenges for Non-potable Water Reuse in Northern California
The Challenge: Augmenting water supplies with clean recycled water. (Adobe PDF document)
Measuring the Sustainability of Western Water Systems
Rural Connections, May 2010
Our water systems in the American West are old-fashioned hybrids. All of the foundational fixtures of the West’s water system are showing severe signs of obsolescing rapidly. (Adobe PDF document)
Articles
Beyond Connections: Pursuing Multidimensional Conjunctive Management.
47 Idaho Law Review 265 (2011).
Presentations
Water in the West
Slides from a presentation by David M. Kennedy. (Adobe PDF document)