A Water Framework for Calif: Insights from Innovative Approaches in Europe
Announcing a conference and release of a new report:
A Water Framework for California: Insights from Innovative Approaches in Europe
Thurs April 10th 9a-5p, Seaborg Room, Faculty Club Space limited,
register in advance
The Mediterranean climate prevailing in California and southern Europe exerts a pervasive influence on patterns of human settlement and resource use by virtue of summer drought, highly seasonal precipitation/runoff, high inter-annual variability in precipitation, episodic floods and sediment transport. Humans have responded to this natural variability by constructing massive water supply and control infrastructure at a scale far exceeding that degree of control seen in more humid climates.
Surprisingly, there has been little systematic recognition of the strong parallels among Mediterranean-climate regions and the potential to look to the other regions for precedents for solving common problems, nor this been used as an organizing theme in teaching and research.
In 2000, the European Parliament passed the Water Framework Directive, a broad reform of water management that has triggered changes including requirements for river basin scale management, setting ecological targets for all waters, and requiring transparency in water pricing and subsidies, wherein the economic benefits and environmental impacts of water uses are estimated and made public. The many parallels and differences in water management between California and Europe make for unusual opportunities for comparative learning.
This conference includes presentations on water management in California and Europe by leading scholars, practitioners, and agency officials, and presentations of results of a workshop (held in connection with the course Hydrology for Planners) in which interdisciplinary teams of graduate students from UC Berkeley and the Technical University of Lisbon work on comparative water management, in California and Portugal.
The Portuguese students were all participants in previous workshops in the course Mediterranean-Climate Landscapes, which involved Berkeley students traveling to Portugal to conduct research on water management issues common to California and the Mediterranean basin.
See http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/WRCA/waterframework08.html for program and other details as they are updated. Space is limited, advance registration (free) is required to insure you can attend. Please RSVP to tgrantham@nature.berkeley.edu
Now available online:
A Fresh Perspective for Managing Water in California: Insights from Applying the European Water Framework Directive to the Russian River.
by Ted Grantham, Juliet Christian-Smith, Matt Kondolf, and Stefan Scheuer
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/WRCA/WRC/pubs_contri.html#208
We report results of a thought experiment, in which we imagined the Russian River was located within the EU and attempted to apply the Water Framework Directive (WFD) to the basin. We considered data available to assess ecological status of its water bodies, and to the extent possible with available data, evaluated ecological and water quality conditions.
Using publicly available data, we reported on the economics of water in the basin, identifying how much various sectors of the economy were paying for their water and evaluating the extent of full cost recovery. Our findings highlight the fragmented management of water in the Russian River basin, with diverse and often conflicting roles played by two county governments, numerous local jurisdictions, and various state and federal agencies. The coherent, basin-level management that is a goal of the WFD, along with greater transparency in water economics and clear articulation of ecological goals, could address many of the problematic aspects of water management in the Russian River today.
A Water Framework for California: Insights from Innovative Approaches in Europe
Thurs April 10th 9a-5p, Seaborg Room, Faculty Club Space limited,
register in advance
The Mediterranean climate prevailing in California and southern Europe exerts a pervasive influence on patterns of human settlement and resource use by virtue of summer drought, highly seasonal precipitation/runoff, high inter-annual variability in precipitation, episodic floods and sediment transport. Humans have responded to this natural variability by constructing massive water supply and control infrastructure at a scale far exceeding that degree of control seen in more humid climates.
Surprisingly, there has been little systematic recognition of the strong parallels among Mediterranean-climate regions and the potential to look to the other regions for precedents for solving common problems, nor this been used as an organizing theme in teaching and research.
In 2000, the European Parliament passed the Water Framework Directive, a broad reform of water management that has triggered changes including requirements for river basin scale management, setting ecological targets for all waters, and requiring transparency in water pricing and subsidies, wherein the economic benefits and environmental impacts of water uses are estimated and made public. The many parallels and differences in water management between California and Europe make for unusual opportunities for comparative learning.
This conference includes presentations on water management in California and Europe by leading scholars, practitioners, and agency officials, and presentations of results of a workshop (held in connection with the course Hydrology for Planners) in which interdisciplinary teams of graduate students from UC Berkeley and the Technical University of Lisbon work on comparative water management, in California and Portugal.
The Portuguese students were all participants in previous workshops in the course Mediterranean-Climate Landscapes, which involved Berkeley students traveling to Portugal to conduct research on water management issues common to California and the Mediterranean basin.
See http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/WRCA/waterframework08.html for program and other details as they are updated. Space is limited, advance registration (free) is required to insure you can attend. Please RSVP to tgrantham@nature.berkeley.edu
Now available online:
A Fresh Perspective for Managing Water in California: Insights from Applying the European Water Framework Directive to the Russian River.
by Ted Grantham, Juliet Christian-Smith, Matt Kondolf, and Stefan Scheuer
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/WRCA/WRC/pubs_contri.html#208
We report results of a thought experiment, in which we imagined the Russian River was located within the EU and attempted to apply the Water Framework Directive (WFD) to the basin. We considered data available to assess ecological status of its water bodies, and to the extent possible with available data, evaluated ecological and water quality conditions.
Using publicly available data, we reported on the economics of water in the basin, identifying how much various sectors of the economy were paying for their water and evaluating the extent of full cost recovery. Our findings highlight the fragmented management of water in the Russian River basin, with diverse and often conflicting roles played by two county governments, numerous local jurisdictions, and various state and federal agencies. The coherent, basin-level management that is a goal of the WFD, along with greater transparency in water economics and clear articulation of ecological goals, could address many of the problematic aspects of water management in the Russian River today.