Water Resources Management

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National Wastewater Tracking Could Help Us Stay Ahead of COVID-19—but Congress Cut the Funds

For years, medical experts have used wastewater to track the spread of diseases. The National Wastewater Surveillance System has the potential to significantly change the way we fight COVID-19 as well as future pandemics, bacterial diseases, and viruses. But building up the robustness of a wastewater surveillance system will take financial support, and it's not clear Congress will provide it.

Douglas Yeung @DouglasCYeung

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COVID-19 and the Economy, America's Blood Supply, 10 Years of the ACA: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on COVID-19 and the economy, strengthening the U.S. blood supply, 10 years of the Affordable Care Act, and more.

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Green Infrastructure in Los Angeles: An Olympian Feat

Los Angeles has an opportunity to reinvent itself by harnessing the collective spirit of Olympics development, climate activism, and Measure W funding. No single project can address all LA's environmental needs, but many diverse projects could provide an opportunity for synergies and to create a new “city feel,” the way palm trees, traffic, and movie-touting billboards do now.

Noah Johnson, Karishma V. Patel, et al.

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Los Angeles River Revitalization: Taking Inspiration from Near and Far

Currently a predominantly concrete channel running through the city, the Los Angeles River has great potential to revitalize Los Angeles's water resources, landscape, and identity. Creating a new vision for the river presents a complex challenge for policymakers, engineers, and urban planners.

Keren Zhu, J. Luke Irwin, et al.

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More Than Stormwater: How Green Infrastructure Offers Multiple Benefits for Los Angeles Communities

California faces water supply shortages, which are worsened by climate change. Applying a systems framework is essential to addressing complex problems for the sustainability of water resources.

Joan Chang, Kristin Warren, et al.

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How to Ensure Quality Drinking Water Service for All? One Option Is Fewer Utilities

California's Human Right to Water Bill declares that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water.” One clear barrier to reaching this target is the sheer number of small water utilities that pose service sustainability and public health risks to their customers.

David Catt, Michelle E. Miro, et al.

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Lessening Leakages: How Water Systems Can Learn From Smart Electric Grids

As drought and population growth place increasing pressure on water supply, the need to save and efficiently manage Southern California's water resources becomes increasingly critical. A single information and communication technology platform could go a long way toward moving water utilities from reactive to proactive maintenance practices.

Jalal Awan, Michelle E. Miro, et al.

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Increasing Groundwater Reliance in L.A. County Means Dealing with Extensive Contamination

As the Los Angeles region increases its reliance on groundwater sources to become more resilient in the face of drought and to reduce demand for imported water sources, advances in the information available on groundwater quality and contamination could help community water systems avoid health hazards and better ensure a safe drinking water supply.

Alexandra Huttinger, Michelle E. Miro, et al.

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Resilience and Adaptation Strategies Can Address the Impacts of Climate Change

With climate change already generating storms, heat waves, and droughts beyond historical norms, local governments need to do more to prepare. A decisionmaking framework developed by RAND allows communities to stress-test ideas, weigh the trade-offs, and plan for a range of possible futures.

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How Federal Policy Could Help Water and Wastewater Utilities

A targeted approach could help the federal government address the root causes of infrastructure problems more effectively than a spending initiative that simply spreads money around with the hope that more spending might do some good.

Debra Knopman, David Catt

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How Should Water Professionals Invest in Resilience?

Water professionals can think about building resilience as a process of embracing and managing future uncertainty. Rather than trying to predict which problem to plan for, researchers help planners consider a wide range of potential scenarios.

Jordan R. Fischbach

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Getting the Lead Out of Pittsburgh's Water

Without an aggressive long-term strategy for replacing service lines, and collaboration among the water authority, public officials, and residents, lead in Pittsburgh's water will persist.

Jordan R. Fischbach, Linnea Warren May @LinneaKWMay

announcement

RAND Opens Office in the San Francisco Bay Area

RAND has opened an office in the San Francisco Bay Area to foster collaboration with the region's leaders and researchers working to solve today's complex problems. Nidhi Kalra, a senior information scientist, is leading the new office.

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Ensuring Robust Water Management Strategies in Lima-Callão, Peru

Water resource agencies around the world are grappling with how to make smart investments to ensure long-term water reliability at a time of unprecedented water stress, growing demands, uncertain climate change, and limited budgets.

Laura Bonzanigo, Nidhi Kalra, et al.

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What Durban Can Teach Detroit: Getting Customers to Pay Their Water Bills

South Africa is proving that governments in poor cities can provide water and collect payment without turning off the water spigot. Detroit and Baltimore might consider exploring models like this that have been successfully tested in even more challenging settings.

Julia Pollak

announcement

RAND Announces New Water and Climate Change Resilience Center

RAND has established a new Water and Climate Resilience Center to address one of the most significant policy challenges of our time: How do we plan, build, and organize our societal systems to become more resilient to the unavoidable impacts of climate change?

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Climate Change, Uncertainty Cast Clouds on Malawi's Food Policies

Malawi has the highest per capita maize consumption in Africa, but it may need to consider alternatives, taking into greater consideration weather, climate change and water needs.

Tobi A. Oluwatola

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New Colorado River Basin Study Examines Tremendous Challenges of the Coming 50 Years

Growing water needs combined with uncertain but possibly deteriorating future hydrologic conditions could stress the Colorado River system in the coming 50 years.

David G. Groves, Jordan R. Fischbach, et al.

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Bringing Sustainability to the Louisiana Coast

Policy Researcher David Groves describes RAND's role in helping to develop a plan to guide Louisiana's coastal investments, help its coastal citizens plan for the future, and create a sustainable coast.

David G. Groves