Statewide water plans
California Water Plan: The California Water Plan is a strategic blueprint to guide water resource management and inform legislative and planning decisions. It is developed by the Department of Water Resources with comprehensive input from a wide range of stakeholders, including government agencies, nonprofits, NGOs, Tribes, and various interest groups. Click here for more on the California Water Plan.
Water Resilience Portfolio: California’s Water Resilience Portfolio outlines a comprehensive strategy to tackle the state’s water challenges by enhancing supply reliability, protecting ecosystems, and preparing for climate-related risks through 142 targeted actions and key legislative measures. Click here for more on the Water Resilience Portfolio.
Water Supply Strategy: In August 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom released California’s Water Supply Strategy (WSS) – Adapting to a Hotter Drier Future, which outlines a strategy and priority actions to adapt and protect water supplies from the effects of rising temperatures and drier conditions due to climate change. Click here for more on the Water Supply Strategy.
Flood management
Central Valley Flood Protection Plan: The Central Valley Flood Protection Plan aims to enhance flood protection, recommending $25-$30 billion in investments over 30 years to safeguard public well-being from catastrophic flooding. Click here for more on the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan.
State Plan of Flood Control: The State Plan of Flood Control encompasses a vast flood management system with 1,600 miles of levees, weirs, dams, and other infrastructure that has historically developed since 1917, impacting flood management across more than 2.2 million acres in California’s Central Valley from Red Bluff to Fresno. Click here for more on the State Plan of Flood Control.
Delta plans
Delta Plan: The Delta Plan is California’s long-term comprehensive plan for managing the water and environmental resources of the Delta as well as dealing with the multiple stressors that impact its ecosystem. Developed by the Delta Stewardship Council, the Delta Plan represents a new era in governing the Delta by setting a legally-enforceable path forward for the Delta and the state. Click here for more on the Delta Plan.
Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan: The State Water Board’s Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan, also known as the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary Water Quality Control Plan, sets the water quality objectives meant to protect beneficial uses and the Delta’s ecosystem. The plan, last updated in 2006, is currently undergoing major revisions. Click here for more on the Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan.
Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River Basins: The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board designates beneficial uses of water bodies, establish water quality objectives to protect those uses, and defines an implementation plan to achieve the objectives, much as the State Water Board does. Whereas the State Water Board’s Bay-Delta Plan sets objectives for salinity and water project operations, the Central Valley Regional Water Board’s basin plan sets objectives for contaminants such as toxic chemicals, bacterial contamination, pesticides and methylmercury. For more on the Central Valley Regional Water Board’s water quality control plan, click here.
Delta Adapts: Climate change is threatening California’s water supply, economy, and biodiversity, particularly in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, by reducing water quality and stressing levees that protect against flooding. To combat these issues, a science-based regional adaptation is essential. The Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Adapts initiative, launched in 2018, includes a Vulnerability Assessment and an Adaptation Plan to address these challenges. This initiative emphasizes a comprehensive, collaborative approach across state, local, and regional levels to enhance climate resiliency. For more on Delta Adapts, click here.
Delta Land Use And Resource Management Plan: The Delta Protection Commission is the agency responsible for maintaining and implementing a resource management plan for the Primary Zone of the Delta, which includes includes approximately 500,000 acres of waterways, levees and farmed lands. The Delta Land Use and Resource Management Plan guides projects that impact land use, agriculture, natural resources, recreation, water, levees, and utilities and infrastructure within the primary zone. The Plan extends over portions of Solano, Yolo, Sacramento, San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties, who are required to be consistent with the Management Plan. For more on the Land Use and Resource Management Plan, click here.
Climate change planning
Safeguarding California: Even though California is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions reductions to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, nonetheless climate impacts such as increased wildfires, floods, severe storms, and heat waves are already occurring and will only become more frequent. The Safeguarding California Plan details what actions state agencies are taking to protect communities, infrastructure, services, and the natural environment from climate change impacts. Click here for more on Safeguarding California.
California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment: California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment provides information to build resilience to climate impacts, including temperature, wildfire, water, sea level rise, and governance. The Fourth Assessment is part of California’s comprehensive strategy to take action based on cutting-edge climate research. It was designed to address critical information gaps that decision-makers need at the state, regional, and local levels to protect and build resilience of California’s people and its infrastructure, natural systems, working lands, and waters. Click here for California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment.
DWR’s Climate Action Plan: The Climate Action Plan serves as the Department’s strategy for addressing climate change across its programs and activities. It is structured into three phases: A greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan, climate change analysis guidance, and a climate change vulnerability assessment. Click here for more on DWR’s Climate Action Plan.
