DR. JAY FAMIGLIETTI: Drought vs. Chronic Water Scarcity and Implications for Sustainability

Apr 11, 2017 at 7:00pm

Maven, Maven's Notebook

Dr. Jay Famiglietti is a hydrologist and a professor of earth system science and of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California Irvine, and the senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.  At the California Irrigation Institute Conference held in January of this year, Dr. Famiglietti gave this keynote presentation, focusing on what the satellites are telling us about the California drought, the implications for sustainability, and the challenge of communicating the seriousness and consequences of the situation.

Dr. Famiglietti began by pointing out that there’s a difference between drought and chronic water scarcity.  “Drought comes and goes, and this one could be on the way out; it’s hard to know just yet,” he said.  “But chronic water scarcity is a persistent state, and that’s what we face here in California.”

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