Water leaders gathered Wednesday at California’s first Integrated Water Management Summit to hear top officials discuss their preferred approach to solving the state’s water and flood management problems.
The summit was hosted by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to address how to effectively manage limited water resources given the uncertainty caused by climate change, environmental regulations, flood risk, changing public preferences and unstable funding.
Speakers included California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Director of Civil Works Steve Stockton and U.S. Rep. Jim Costa.
“The water and flood management approaches that all of us have relied on for decades are no longer sustainable,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin. “DWR supports using an integrated approach to meeting the state's water, flood and ecosystem management challenges, and we encourage our local and regional partners to do the same.”
Integrated Water Management (IWM) is a framework for planning and implementation that incorporates objectives to improve public safety, foster environmental stewardship and support economic stability.
This approach requires planning from both short and long-term perspectives, across jurisdictional and watershed boundaries; and a willingness to move beyond traditional planning and implementation methods.
IWM is not a one-time activity, and requires unprecedented cooperation and alignment among public agencies, landowners, tribal entities, water purveyors, environmental organizations and other stakeholders. IWM calls for programs and projects that deliver multiple benefits worthy of the public’s investment.
The IWM approach promotes system resiliency to accommodate changing conditions, such as regional preferences, environmental needs, flood or drought events, and financing capabilities.
Last week’s snow-pack survey, which measured snowpack water content at 52 percent of normal, underscores the necessity of using an integrated approach to address California’s water supply and ecosystem restoration challenges.
Speakers also referenced the California’s Flood Future report, released Wednesday by DWR and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a public review draft, as an example of why IWM is so important to California’s future.
The report points to the fact that 7 million California residents and $580 billion in assets – including homes, businesses and agriculture – are exposed to flood risk.
California has experienced several significant flood events on the heels of an extended drought, which points to the importance of wise long-term planning for effective flood management.
More information about the Integrated Water Management Summit is available at http://www.watereducation.org/doc.asp?id=2713&;parentID=849 . DWR plans to publish summit highlights in the next couple of months.