Preliminary 2014 Drought Economic Impact Estimates in Central Valley Agriculture

Californias drought will deal a severe blow to Central Valley irrigated agriculture and farm communities this year, costing the industry 1.7 billion and causing more than 14,500 workers to lose jobs, according to preliminary results of a new study by the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. Researchers estimated that Central Valley irrigators wi...

Water Temperature Patterns Below Large Groundwater Springs: Management Implications For Coho Salmon In The Shasta River,...

Published in River Research and Applications

Elevated stream temperature is a primary factor limiting the coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) population in California\textquoterights Shasta River Basin. Understanding the mechanisms driving spatial and temporal trends in water temperature throughout the Shasta River is critical to prioritizing river restoration efforts aimed at protecting this ...

Optimizing the dammed: Water supply losses and fish habitat gains from dam removal in California

Published in E3 Journal of Environmental Research and Management

Dams provide water supply, flood protection, and hydropower generation benefits, but also harm native species by altering the natural flow regime and degrading aquatic and riparian habitat. Restoring some rivers reaches to free-flowing conditions may restore substantial environmental benefits, but at some economic cost. This study uses a systems an...

COMBINED EFFECTS OF RESERVOIR OPERATIONS AND CLIMATE WARMING ON THE FLOW REGIME OF HYDROPOWER BYPASS REACHES OF CALIFORN...

Published in River Research and Applications

Alterations to flow regimes from regulation and climatic change both affect the biophysical functioning of rivers over long time periods and large spatial areas. Historically, however, the effects of these flow alteration drivers have been studied separately. In this study, results from unregulated and regulated river management models were assesse...

Assessing Potential Impacts of Livestock Management on Groundwater

This supplemental paper provides a brief review of the potential for groundwater pollution from animal feeding operations (AFOs). Management activities that address surface water quality may reduce nutrient loads, but they may also lead to a deterioration of groundwater quality as well as additional methane emissions. Groundwater pollutants may eve...

Water Management Trade-offs between Agriculture and the Environment: A Multiobjective Approach and Application

Published in Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering

Practical plans for agricultural water use within multiobjective frameworks require feasible solutions that meet the objectives of competing interests and this is the root of common decision problems that plague water resources systems. To find the best solutions among the set of feasible solutions, decision-makers can analyze their worth functions...

Agricultural Losses from Salinity in Californias Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

Published in San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science

Sea level rise, large-scale flooding, and new conveyance arrangements for water exports may increase future water salinity for local agricultural production in California\textquoterights Sacramento\textendashSan Joaquin Delta. Increasing salinity in crop root zones often decreases crop yields and crop revenues. Salinity effects are nonlinear, and v...

The role of tidal marsh restoration in fish management in the San Francisco Estuary

Published in San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science

Tidal marsh restoration is an important management issue in the San Francisco Estuary (estuary). Restoration of large areas of tidal marsh is ongoing or planned in the lower estuary (up to 6,000 ha, Callaway et al. 2011). Large areas are proposed for restoration in the upper estuary under the Endangered Species Act biological opinions (3,237 ha) an...

A Watershed Momentum

A magazine feature profiling the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences