Future water-management conditions, including precipitation and temperature patterns that may be changing in response to global climate change, will affect water supplies in California. However, few water-management agencies in the state have formally included climate change in their water-management plans.
With the growing recognition of climate change, water managers in Southern California have begun to seek methods for incorporating such changes in their planning processes.
As part of a multiyear study on climate-change decisionmaking under uncertainty, RAND researchers worked with water agencies in California to help them better understand how climate change might affect their systems and what actions, if any, they should take to address this challenge.
Specifically, RAND partnered with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) to develop new planning tools and data to evaluate the performance of their current plans. The research team then presented the information in various ways over the course of four workshops (three in the fall of 2006 and one in the fall of 2007).
The team surveyed participants before and after each workshop to try to better understand how the information influenced the participants' view of the seriousness of climate change to their region and the ability for the region to respond meaningfully to the threat. Over the course of the workshops, over 50 elected officials and staff from cities and state, regional, and local water agencies participated in this study.
Robert Lempert, Principal Investigator
David Groves
Debra Knopman
Sandra Berry
Lynne Wainfan
This briefing presents an analysis of how different adaptive water-management strategies may reduce Southern California's vulnerability to climate change and other planning uncertainties.
RAND researchers are working with water agencies in California to help them better understand how climate change might affect their systems and what actions they may need to take to address this challenge. This report documents the study.
Water managers in Southern California, who grapple with how to address climate change in their near-term and long-term plans, are beginning to seek methods for incorporating such changes in their planning processes.
Description of a new analytic method, based on robust decisionmaking, that could be applied to water resource management in California and climate change policy questions.
