…. California will be managing its water under changing conditions for the indefinite future. The state has taken important steps to adapt to climate change’s effects on water, but as Public Policy Institute of California researchers argued in a new report, it’s not yet on the right trajectory to manage some of the changes underway — or the greater challenges ahead. The good news is that California can make significant progress when it pays attention to a problem. Urban water use has remained flat since 1990, despite millions of new residents, which is a testament to the power of California’s famed innovation and creative thinking. The state is also undertaking difficult but necessary work to improve management of its vitally important groundwater resources, as well as the headwater forests that supply some two-thirds of the state’s water.
—Written by Letitia Grenier, director of the Public Policy Institute of California Water Policy Center