The Future of Water in California

Mon, 02 Dec 2013 19:00:00 -0500

In planning the workshop, the CCWAS students sought to create cross-pollination between those generating new scientific knowledge and those applying it, with the overarching goal of improving California’s water management and preparedness for climate change. According to Amber Mace, associate director of the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment, and the Economy, “This is the kind of program that will grow up our future leaders who get it, who have the background in science and the understanding of what decision makers need.” Graham Fogg, a professor of hydrogeology and principal investigator of the CCWAS IGERT, commented to one of the graduate students about the workshop: "You students are doing it right now, in this room, with these people, you’re making integration happen.” The CCWAS students will continue to make integration happen by writing a short workshop summary for inclusion in a trade publication widely read by both academic researchers and agency staff. This will enable water managers and scientists who weren't able to attend the workshop to benefit from some of the insights developed by participants. In the longer term, they will write a more full description of the workshop, integrated with a literature review, as a white paper that describes the state of hydroclimatology and water policy in California. By doing this, we expect the students to increase their awareness of policy issues, use this awareness to define research goals, and communicate their research to decision makers and the public in a way that affects or transforms policy. Andrew Altevogt, a workshop panelist and Assistant Executive Officer of the Central Valley Water Board, summarized, "You need people who are versed in both science and policy and how to bring it together. Society needs people who do science well and can...have conversations with other scientists, policymakers, and economists. And we in the policy realm need to act."