This April 19th workshop in San Pedro was focused on helping Southern California water agencies and others to gain information for improving drought preparedness and updating Urban Water Management Plans. The workshop was sponsored by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Water Education Foundation.

California’s recent drought of 2012-16 revealed drought vulnerabilities for water users throughout the state. This workshop highlighted new information about paleo droughts in Southern California local watersheds and impacts of climate change that will alter drought vulnerability in the future.

DWR commissioned the University of Arizona to use paleoclimate information from tree-ring records to reconstruct past drought periods in key Southern California watersheds and in the Colorado River Basin. This recreated long-term record will help water managers better assess the risk of dry conditions in their service areas and plan appropriately for mitigation of those conditions, by providing quantitative measures of the number of droughts of various durations that have occurred over a centuries-long reconstructed record. Read more details about the tree-ring study in this DWR press release.

Topics Discussed:

• Drought vulnerability and preparedness
• Drought in the Southern California paleo record & a guidebook on use of paleo data
• The future with climate change
• Executive Order B-37-16, and strengthening local drought resilience
• Colorado River Basin drought contingency planning
• Research to improve precipitation forecasting for drought preparedness

Speakers:

• Jeanine Jones, Interstate Resources Manager, California Department of Water Resources
• Connie Woodhouse, Professor, School of Geography and Development, University of Arizona
• Mike Anderson, California State Climatologist, California Department of Water Resources
• Peter Brostrom, Land & Water Use Program Manager, California Department of Water Resources
• Chris Harris, Executive Director, Colorado River Board of California
• Mike DeFlorio, Researcher, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory     

Location:

The workshop was held in the Madeo Ballroom at the DoubleTree by Hilton, 2800 Via Cabrillo-Marina, San Pedro, CA 90731.