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

The California Aqueduct. Photo by Doug Parker.

Trends and opportunities in water markets in the western U.S.

April 6, 2020

By Faith Kearns. Climate variability and the mismatch between where water is and where people need it to be are two defining forces of life in California.

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Water management as farming practice

March 23, 2020

By Faith Kearns. Water management is one of the most important farming practices you or your clients should be practicing, full stop, wrote Phoebe Gordon, UC Cooperative Extension orchard systems advisor in Madera and Merced counties.

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An irrigation specialist puts down roots in California

March 9, 2020

By Kathryn M Stein

Mallika Nocco is an Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist in Soil-Plant-Water Relations in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis. You are new to UC Davis and UC ANR.

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New and aspiring sheep producers learn how to handle sheep and assess body condition at a Shepherd Skills Workshop in Auburn, California. Photo by Dan Macon.

Supporting first-generation ranchers in coping with drought and climate change

March 2, 2020

By Faith Kearns. When drought hits California, as it inevitably does, ranchers are among the first to feel it. In a state with distinct wet and dry seasons, the window in which the largely rain-fed grasses that nourish livestock can grow opens and closes quickly.

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Catching the water bug: A conversation with Brinda Sarathy

February 3, 2020

By Faith Kearns Brinda Sarathy is Professor of Environmental Analysis and Director of the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability at Pitzer College. In addition to being on the faculty at Pitzer, you are also directing the Redford Conservancy.

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