Adequate supplies of water of appropriate quality are critical to underpin economic vitality and productivity, support environmental restoration and maintenance, and provide for society in equitable ways. The institutional arrangements that govern water allocation and water quality – past, present, and emerging – and the scientific basis for management decisions, are of fundamental importance to water policy.

The Water Policy Program (WPP) at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara is an interdisciplinary effort to advance the theory and practice of water management and policy to meet these needs. Drawing on the excellent programs already established at the Bren School and the leading-edge work of its distinguished faculty, the WPP supports the research, teaching, and service missions of the Bren School and the University of California.

One of the important contributions an interdisciplinary program like the Bren School provides is the ability to synthesize research and knowledge from a wide range of disciplines in ways that usefully inform decision-making and policy in the public and private sectors. The WPP at the Bren School provides a vehicle to support this process of synthesis, analysis, and transfer of information by creating a focus on the policy nexus between the natural and physical sciences, social sciences, legal frameworks, institutions, and management issues confronting both the public and private sectors.

ACTIVITIES

The Water Policy Program is engaged in a number of activities:

Research on Water Policy-Related Issues

The Water Policy Program supports collaborative research efforts among Bren faculty and with partners in the public and private sectors relating to a broad range of water policy questions. The program also provides support for research opportunities for Bren masters' and Ph.D. students.

Publications

An important contribution of the Water Policy Program is publication of articles, occasional papers, and books on water policy-related subjects.

Host Workshops, Seminars, and Colloquia on Water Policy Topics

Events are designed to support and build the multidisciplinary approach of the Bren School. Policy questions are examined from multiple perspectives ranging from economic analysis to physical processes and legal constraints. For example, the Program hosted a workshop in 2004 for developing a roadmap for ocean desalination planning and permitting as a follow-on to the Governor's Task Force on Desalination.

Business, Government, and NGO Links

The Water Policy Program provides links between Bren School faculty and students and the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOS), and government agencies at all levels through internships, conferences, and other activities. These include state and federal agencies such as the California Department of Water Resources and the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, professional organizations such as the Urban Water Conservation Council, and water management entities such as the Inland Empire Utilities Agency.

Advisory Role for Water Policy

Bren School faculty are actively engaged in providing scientific input and advice for key water policy processes. Current and recent contributions include:

• California State Water Plan (Bulletin 160-05)
• Governor's Task Force on Desalination
• California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection/University of California
• Committee on the Scientific Basis on the Prediction of Cumulative Watershed Effects
• State of Washington Panel on Salmon Conservation Validation Monitoring
• California Bay-Delta Restoration Program, Ecosystem Restoration Program Science Board
• California Bay-Delta Restoration Program, Independent Science Board
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Adaptive Management Forum for San Joaquin River Restoration
• Sustainable Ecosystems Institute, Portland, Scientific Panel on the Columbia River Channel Improvement Project
• Iraq Foundation, Eden Again Project, Technical Advisory Panel on Restoration of the Mesopotamian Marshlands
• Canadian Government’s Housing and Mortgage Corporation
• U.S. Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Global Change Research Program
• California Energy Commission, Public Interest Energy Research Program
  
  

Supporting the Professional School Mission of the Bren School

Activities of the Water Policy Program are specifically designed to foster the training and professional development of students who are moving into professional career tracks in Water Policy Management. The Program facilitates student participation in professional conferences outside the university, builds contacts and relationships with government agencies, companies, NGOs and others active in water management issues and provides a mechanism for students to engage in current policy processes.

Support for Teaching

One of the purposes of the WPP is to support the teaching mission of the Bren School -- in particular the Water Resources Management specialization at the Bren School under the direction of Associate Professor Arturo Keller. The Water Policy Program also supports Bren student Group Projects and fosters collaborative work among students. 

Bren students conducting field research on water quality, fall 2004.

DATA SOURCES

Western Water Transfer Data Set

The Water Transfer Data Base, funded by the National Science Foundation and the California Water Resources Research Center and presented by the Bren School, is the only comprehensive accounting of water trading between 1987 and 2008 in the 12 Western States. As such, it is a valuable tool for researchers and others interested in the extent and pattern of voluntary water exchanges in the West.

REPORTS & PUBLICATIONS

Rethinking Water Policy Opportunities in Southern California: An Evaluation of Current Plans, Future Uncertainty, and Local Resource Potential

This report provides an approach and a modeling tool for considering water management options. The specific study is focused on Southern California, though the tools and approaches are applicable elsewhere. The project employed a scenario approach along with a computer model to consider and quantify the performance of alternative water management options in numerous scenarios of future water management conditions. The scenarios were based, in part, on those developed for the California Water Plan Update 2005. Data used in the study are also available below.

There are many management strategies available in California to provide sufficient, high quality water services to its diverse users. Even though the number of water users and the California economy continue to grow, and conventional water supplies remain limited, new technologies and management approaches are increasing the number of new supply options (from ocean desalination to new end-use efficiency improvements) and improving their cost-effectiveness. There are, however, real costs and barriers for each option to provide reliable water services and water supplies of appropriate quality for the end uses. Options and strategies must be identified, choices and investments made, and costs and benefits allocated. This methodology and tool were developed to contribute to that process.

Water Scenario Evaluation Model (WASEM) 1.0 Quick-Start Guide, July 2006

http://g.icess.ucsb.edu/rtmime/1168389566-18330/MWD Data.xls

http://g.icess.ucsb.edu/rtmime/1168389566-18330/Regional Data.xls

http://g.icess.ucsb.edu/rtmime/1168389566-18330/WASEM_v1.0.ANA

FACULTY

Bren faculty provide a broad range of expertise on water resource science and management with applications for policy. The following faculty members are involved in water-related work. (Click on the name to link to each faculty member’s web site.)

	Robert Wilkinson, Director, Water Policy Program Robert Wilkinson is Director of the Water Policy Program at the Bren School. His teaching and research focus is on water policy, climate change, and environmental policy issues. Dr. Wilkinson advises government agencies, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and foundations on water policy and environmental issues. He currently serves on the public advisory committee for California's State Water Plan, and he represented the University of California on the Governor's Task Force on Desalination. He has advised the California Energy Commission and the US EPA on climate research, and he served as coordinator for the climate impacts assessment of the California Region for the US Global Change Research Program and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
	Frank Davis Frank Davis specializes in landscape ecology and conservation planning. His water-related research interests include wildfire in California shrub lands, ecological consequences of climate change, and decision support tools for setting watershed conservation priorities. Dr. Davis’s works ranges from the Everglades to California watersheds.
	Jeff Dozier Jeff Dozier works in the fields of snow science, hydrology, and hydrochemistry of alpine regions, remote sensing, and environmental science and information systems. His research studies involve several operational efforts to measure snow, forecast runoff, and evaluate snow metamorphism in the Sierra Nevada.
	Thomas Dunne Thomas Dunne conducts field and theoretical studies of drainage basin, hillslope, and fluvial geomorphology, and in the application of hydrology, sediment transport, and geomorphology to landscape management and hazard analysis. He has gained experience with geomorphic and hydrologic processes through research and consultation in many parts of the world, and has expressed some of that experience in teaching courses, advising government agencies, publishing journal articles, and co-authoring two textbooks.
	James Frew James Frew specializes in environmental information management. His water-related research interests include systems for transforming remotely sensed imagery into maps of ocean color and alpine snow cover.
	Patricia Holden Patricia Holden is an environmental microbiologist who focuses on bacterial ecology and physiology. Her research in soil microbiology includes studies of bacterial growth habits, the influence of water potential, expolymers, and pollutant transformations. She also studies the presence and origins of sewage-associated bacteria in coastal waters, including the use of community fingerprinting to understand bacteria as tracers for other pollutants and to screen for potentially pathogenic bacteria in complex environmental samples.
	Arturo Keller Arturo Keller's research focuses on the sustainable management of water resources at the watershed scale and on water quality issues, with particular emphasis on understanding the role that management practices in different land uses play in the loading of pollutants and on strategies to reduce ecological impacts.
	John Melack John Melack's fields of expertise are limnology – the study of inland waters – of tropical, saline, and alpine lakes; photoplankton and zooplankton ecology; biogeochemistry, wetland ecology; and remote sensing. He is currently conducting studies of how coastal streams influence the near-shore waters of the Santa Barbara Channel, performing long-term research on the ecology of Mono Lake and alpine catchments in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and collaborating with Brazilian scientists on regional-scale analyses of wetland inundation and biogeochemistry in the Amazon basin.
	Oran Young Oran Young's scientific work encompasses both basic research focusing on collective choice and social institutions, and applied research dealing with issues pertaining to international environmental governance and to the Arctic as an international region. He is chair of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, co-chair of the Global Carbon Project, and has established the Program on Governance for Sustainable Development at the Bren School, which is concerned with institutional management of global environmental problems and policies that transcend borders.

FUNDING

Support for the Water Policy Program has been provided by the Bren School and from several donors who have provided generous gifts to create the program. Further funding for the Water Policy Program will be secured from multiple sources including private donors, grants, contracts, and university funds.For more information on supporting the Water Policy Program, please contact Jennifer Purcell Deacon, Bren Assistant Dean of Development.