The Confluence

Landscape with New Melones Lake in Spring

The Confluence is the blog of the California Institute for Water Resources (CIWR) within University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. We cover timely topics of water management in California, highlight innovative research and voices.

CIWR's mission is to integrate California's research, extension, and education programs to develop research-based solutions to water resource challenges. We do this by facilitating collaborative research and outreach on water issues across California's academic institutions and with international, federal, state, regional, nonprofit, and campus communities.

Visit us at: ciwr.ucanr.edu | follow us on Bluesky @ucanrwater.bsky.social, LinkedIn, and Twitter/X @ucanrwater

Ghost pines, live oaks, black oaks, and madrones, among other trees, make their stand interspersed with annual and perennial grasses at the headwaters of a California watershed. Photo by David Lewis.

Headwaters

April 15, 2019

By David J Lewis

I am standing where stream flow begins, in a nameless tributary of the Russian River to the east of Hopland, California. This particular spot and location has been a grazing livestock ranch, primarily sheep, going back more than 100 years.

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Nell Green Nylen (right) and her colleagues stop for a view of San Francisco Bay on a hike in the East Bay Hills above the UC Berkeley campus. Photo by Lidia Cano Pecharromán.

Improving water governance through informed decision-making

March 25, 2019

By Faith Kearns Nell Green Nylen is a Senior Research Fellow with the Wheeler Water Institute in the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) at Berkeley Law. Her research engages law, science, and policy to tackle critical California water issues. Nell earned a J.D. from Berkeley Law and a Ph.D.

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Economic policy approaches to water allocation in California

March 4, 2019

By Faith Kearns An interview with Dr. Ellen Bruno, who is an Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist in quantitative policy analysis at UC Berkeley.

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Aerial view of the Rio Hondo Spreading Grounds – a water storage and groundwater recharge facility. Photo by Erik Porse.

Rising to the challenges of 21st century water management in Los Angeles

February 11, 2019

By Faith Kearns Early in its development, Los Angeles bound itself tightly to the rest of California by securing a water supply piped in from locations across the state.

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Documenting California drought as an undocumented researcher

December 3, 2018

By Faith Kearns Evelyn Valdez-Ward is a doctoral student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine where her research focuses on the effects of climate change and drought on plants and soils.

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