Progress 10/01/01 to 09/30/06
Outputs
Within the past decade, data from many earth-science disciplines have established that the earth's landscape, waterscape, and ecosystems are changing dramatically at an accelerating rate. There is compelling evidence that the changes are partly, if not wholly, attributable to the activities of an industrial civilization devoted to technological conquest of nature. The only rational approach to mitigate world-wide catastrophic damages that may occur due to these changes is to adapt to nature's constraints, rather than confronting its forces. Even if our full scientific knowledge is dedicated to devise technologies for sustainable use of water and natural resources around the world, the short-term and long-term challenges will be formidable. Yet, we are confronted, within and outside California, with an extraordinary human problem. Common wisdom has it that education and literacy help build democratic societies governed by values of fairness, sharing, and compassion. What
we find is that literacy and technological development do not necessarily lead to wise and rational policies of water management. In California, any plan to reallocate water resources of streams and rivers necessary to adapt to changed demographic, environmental, and ecological considerations, is fiercely resisted politically and otherwise. One argument is, 'it has already been done, we cannot change it'. In other parts of the world such as India, conditions are worse. Most of India, including urban areas, enjoys very little protected water supply. Nevertheless, spurred by a short-term economic boom, India is depleting and degrading its water resource systems so rapidly that it faces potential social catastrophe. India's growing stature in science and technology has no relevance to the perilous conditions of its water and natural resources. Nor does India show any inclination to address profound scientific issues that must guide rational water policies to provide safe drinking water
and sanitation for India's poor and to support agriculture and the industry. Regardless of whether a nation is technologically developed or undeveloped, raw human aspirations seem to override the outwardly avowed social goals of fairness, justice, and citizenship. How else can one rationalize the intense effort underway to rebuild New Orleans and its levees at great expense, when its vulnerability to severe hurricanes persists, and the potential for more intense hurricanes and rising sea levels over the coming decades is very real due to global warming? Or, how can one understand the near-demise of CalFed, a remarkable institution that evolved so that a multitude of stakeholders from all segments of society could come together to fashion a wise and sustained use of the precious delta? What type of 'education' do we need to create towards a wise utilization of water in California and elsewhere? Is the vision that science and humanities must come together towards a wise use of natural
resources unrealistic to achieve due to the limitations of human nature, regardless of the level of education?
Impacts
The early 1990s witnessed significant restructuring of curricula in the earth, environmental, and ecological sciences to respond to escalating environmental and ecological damage caused by human activities. A tenet guiding this restructure was the need to train students who would bring science and humanities together to enable societies around the world to derive civilized sustenance from a finite, interconnected earth. To achieve this vision, it is necessary that faculty in the sciences and the humanities come together, recognizing their inter-related roles in the broader scheme of knowledge. Secondly, the best available science must become an integral part of governmental policy and legislation. Fifteen years later we find that faculty in the sciences and the humanities cling to their separate ways, dictated by their distinct cultures. The world over, governmental policies of water and natural resource are dominated by politics and economic objectives. Modern world is
driven by science and technology. Yet, social governance is dictated by conflicting human qualities that transcend science. In the research universities, we fail to recognize this human problem, of which we ourselves are a part. Instead, we continue to carry out our research, looking at problems of profound importance to society from our own narrow objectives of science or humanity. The present work draws attention to a need for educators to pause and assess the type of education that is needed for sustainable natural resources management, and to develop ways of providing that education.
Publications
- T. N. Narasimhan, Hydrogeology in North America: Past and future, Hydrogeol. Jour., 13(1), 7-24, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Story of Silicon Valley\s water (there is more to Silicon Valley than what meets the eye), Jour. Geol. Soc. Ind., 65 (5), 665-665, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Buckingham, 1907: An appreciation, Vadose Zone Jour., 4 (2), 434-441, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, The American Patent model, Curr. Sci., 89 (2), 241-241, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Ground Water Profession in transition: Discovery to adaptation, Jour. Geol. Soc. Ind., 65 (6), 787-792, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Water: Science and society, Curr. Sci., 89 (5), 787-793, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Pedology: A hydrogeological perspective, Vadose Zone Jour., 4 (4), 891-898, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Who owns ground water, Leader Page article, The Hindu, May 3, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Water and India's Constitution, Leader Page article, The Hindu, December 15, 2005
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Progress 01/01/05 to 12/31/05
Outputs
Within the past decade, data from many earth-science disciplines have established that the earth's landscape, waterscape, and ecosystems are changing dramatically at an accelerating rate. There is compelling evidence that the changes are partly, if not wholly, attributable to the activities of an industrial civilization devoted to technological conquest of nature. The only rational approach to mitigate world-wide catastrophic damages that may occur due to these changes is to adapt to nature's constraints, rather than confronting its forces. Even if our full scientific knowledge is dedicated to devise technologies for sustainable use of water and natural resources around the world, the short-term and long-term challenges will be formidable. Yet, we are confronted, within and outside California, with an extraordinary human problem. Common wisdom has it that education and literacy help build democratic societies governed by values of fairness, sharing, and compassion.
What we find is that literacy and technological development do not necessarily lead to wise and rational policies of water management. In California, any plan to reallocate water resources of streams and rivers necessary to adapt to changed demographic, environmental, and ecological considerations, is fiercely resisted politically and otherwise. One argument is, 'it has already been done, we cannot change it'. In other parts of the world such as India, conditions are worse. Most of India, including urban areas, enjoys very little protected water supply. Nevertheless, spurred by a short-term economic boom, India is depleting and degrading its water resource systems so rapidly that it faces potential social catastrophe. India's growing stature in science and technology has no relevance to the perilous conditions of its water and natural resources. Nor does India show any inclination to address profound scientific issues that must guide rational water policies to provide safe drinking
water and sanitation for India's poor and to support agriculture and the industry. Regardless of whether a nation is technologically developed or undeveloped, raw human aspirations seem to override the outwardly avowed social goals of fairness, justice, and citizenship. How else can one rationalize the intense effort underway to rebuild New Orleans and its levees at great expense, when its vulnerability to severe hurricanes persists, and the potential for more intense hurricanes and rising sea levels over the coming decades is very real due to global warming? Or, how can one understand the near-demise of CalFed, a remarkable institution that evolved so that a multitude of stakeholders from all segments of society could come together to fashion a wise and sustained use of the precious delta? What type of 'education' do we need to create towards a wise utilization of water in California and elsewhere? Is the vision that science and humanities must come together towards a wise use of
natural resources unrealistic to achieve due to the limitations of human nature, regardless of the level of education?
Impacts
The early 1990s witnessed significant restructuring of curricula in the earth, environmental, and ecological sciences to respond to escalating environmental and ecological damage caused by human activities. A tenet guiding this restructure was the need to train students who would bring science and humanities together to enable societies around the world to derive civilized sustenance from a finite, interconnected earth. To achieve this vision, it is necessary that faculty in the sciences and the humanities come together, recognizing their inter-related roles in the broader scheme of knowledge. Secondly, the best available science must become an integral part of governmental policy and legislation. Fifteen years later we find that faculty in the sciences and the humanities cling to their separate ways, dictated by their distinct cultures. The world over, governmental policies of water and natural resource are dominated by politics and economic objectives. Modern world
is driven by science and technology. Yet, social governance is dictated by conflicting human qualities that transcend science. In the research universities, we fail to recognize this human problem, of which we ourselves are a part. Instead, we continue to carry out our research, looking at problems of profound importance to society from our own narrow objectives of science or humanity. The present work draws attention to a need for educators to pause and assess the type of education that is needed for sustainable natural resources management, and to develop ways of providing that education.
Publications
- T. N. Narasimhan, Hydrogeology in North America: Past and future, Hydrogeol. Jour., 13(1), 7-24, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Story of Silicon Valley\s water (there is more to Silicon Valley than what meets the eye), Jour. Geol. Soc. Ind., 65 (5), 665-665, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Buckingham, 1907: An appreciation, Vadose Zone Jour., 4 (2), 434-441, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, The American Patent model, Curr. Sci., 89 (2), 241-241, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Who owns ground water, Leader Page article, The Hindu, May 3, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Ground Water Profession in transition: Discovery to adaptation, Jour. Geol. Soc. Ind., 65 (6), 787-792, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Water: Science and society, Curr. Sci., 89 (5), 787-793, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Pedology: A hydrogeological perspective, Vadose Zone Jour., 4 (4), 891-898, 2005
- T. N. Narasimhan, Water and India's Constitution, Leader Page article, The Hindu, December 15, 2005
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Progress 01/01/04 to 12/31/04
Outputs
Stepping outside California and looking in, a new perspective emerges on its water. California's 150-year experience constitutes a remarkable case history of a free, educated, and technological society learning to adapt its aspirations to limits imposed by nature. California is slowly evolving towards integrated management of its surface water and groundwater resources. This interaction between nature and human behavior provides clues, on the one hand, as to what may lie ahead for California. On the other, California's experience can potentially help many countries that are struggling to develop sustainable water management strategies. California's early settlers vigorously exploited water for prosperity. As encouragement, early laws gave them water rights. By the 1920s, rights without responsibilities resulted in wasteful water use, and Californians amended their Constitution in 1928 to place water under public trust, declaring that water is owned by the people, and
that it shall be beneficially used without waste. Although public trust brought surface water (especially navigable waters) under state control for common benefit, groundwater escaped its purview, partly because of 19th century judicial perception that groundwater was occult, beyond rational understanding. Despite advances in groundwater science by the turn of the century, many landowners have vigorously protected their legal rights to groundwater as private property. Consequently, there is no statewide legislation for integrated management of surface water and groundwater, despite unequivocal scientific evidence that they together constitute a single resource that cannot be managed separately. Surprisingly, enlightened local communities, such as those of Santa Clara County and Orange County have implemented successful water systems integrating surface water and groundwater through artificial recharge and conjunctive use, balancing assured safe water supplies with ecological and
environmental goals. Presently, California combines pockets of locally controlled, enlightened integrated water supply systems without corresponding legislation at the state level. Over the past decade, legislations intended to integrate water management have been unsuccessful due to lack of political will. However, other legislations have been passed with lesser goals of requiring water management plans and monitoring systems. As California's population increases, stress on ecosystems rise, and concerns about prolonged droughts cannot be ignored, it is to be expected that the State follows the example of local communities to bring groundwater within the fold of public trust and mandate integrated water management. Other western states such as Arizona, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Texas have already moved farther in this direction. The valuable lesson for the world from California's water experience is that human aspirations for freedom and unfettered economic prosperity have to
subordinate themselves to nature's constraints. California's educated, free, and technological society has been slow to learn this lesson.
Impacts
We now know the bounds of California's water resources, and the evolving stresses on these resources: population increase, resource depletion, quality degradation, and potential for long-term drought. The rational solution is to submit to nature's constraints, and develop strategies for adaptive living. Such adaptive living entails adequate scientific description of the resource, integrated development strategies compatible with the resource, and ongoing monitoring to provide timely warning before unacceptable impacts occur. Necessary scientific knowledge exists to develop such adaptive management strategies. Yet, we live in a political climate in which sound scientific knowledge does not translate into enlightened water management. Regardless of available scientific knowledge, natural resources management is ultimately an issue of human behavior. The thesis of this work is that science must play a greater role in water policy at the state level. At present, there are
encouraging signs that California is slowly evolving towards more effective integrated water management. However, the future cannot be predicted because human values and political beliefs could change with time. This work has attempted to simultaneously look at the scientific and human dimensions of California's water management. The purpose is to advance the perception that water policies that are dictated by human aspirations without heeding nature's constraints will eventually fail.
Publications
- Narasimhan, T.N. 2004. Buckingham, 1907: An appreciation, Abstract No. 3263, Soil Sci. Soc Am, annual Meeting, Seattle, Nov.
- Narasimhan, T.N. 2004. Soil Science, A hydrogeological perspective, Abstract No. 3264, Soil Sci. Soc Am, annual Meeting, Seattle, Nov.
- Narasimhan, T.N. 2004. Rain harvests and water woes, Opinion Column, The Hindu, a National Newspaper of India, January 6, 2004.
- Narasimhan, T.N. 2004. Water: A broader understanding, Opinion Column, The Hindu, a National Newspaper of India, March 9, 2004
- Narasimhan, T.N. 2004. Fick's insights on liquid diffusion, EOS, Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union, 85 (57), 499,501.
- Narasimhan, T.N. 2004. Darcy's Law and unsaturated flow, Vadose Zone Jour., 3, 1059.
- Narasimhan, T.N. 2004. Managing groundwater, Curr. Sci., 87(2), 132-133.
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Progress 01/01/03 to 12/31/03
Outputs
Water management in the San Joaquin Valley is a major challenge. From water rights to economics, to social justice, the complex issues span science, technology, society, and ethics. An important question is whether the complexities are reducible to a few basic 'tenets' that can provide a rational framework for approaching the difficult issues. Our premise is that the required set of tenets must account for, (a) physical attributes of water-bearing systems, (b) relationship between water and living things, and (c) attributes of human behavior. Accordingly, we identify a set of three tenets for guiding water management. The first tenet is that the hydrological, the erosional, and the nutritional cycles are subject to immutable physical laws that are beyond human control. The second is that these three cycles sustain all life. These life-sustaining cycles are delicately interlinked and respond to forces that drive the Earth. Agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley has
interfered with the delicate linkages significantly, resulting in destabilization of indigenous floral and faunal communities. The third tenet is that human values of compassion, equity, and justice require that water, so vital for all life, is not monopolized, and that it is put to beneficial use in such a way that the integrity of the life-sustaining cycles is disturbed as little as possible at the present time as well as into the foreseeable future. These thoughts constitute a generalization of the spirit of the public trust doctrine that is part of the Greco-Roman civilization. The generalization accounts for the evolving recognition that water management is not just about water any more. For, the Earth's erosional and nutritional cycles are both inexorably tied up with the hydrological cycle. The forces that currently pull water management in opposing directions stem from human aspirations for unlimited material prosperity on the one hand, and on the other, the potential for
serious disruption of relationships among the life-sustaining cycles by actions stemming from human aspirations. Of the three, the first two reflect the unchangeable nature of the physical world. The third, however, is vulnerable to change with the transient evolution of social values. This tenet of civilized living articulates what we now consider to be noble values. This consideration underlies the broadened interpretation of the public trust doctrine by the supreme courts of California and Hawaii over the past few decades. As scientists, we are torn between an exploding technology that promises to control the world with ever increasing sophistication, and our knowledge that Earth systems and biological systems possess attributes that defy technological control. As citizens, we are torn between our freedom to pursue prosperity and the concerns arising from a need to share finite natural resources subject to immutable laws of nature. How should we approach a resolution of these
conflicts? To begin, we need a consensus on common denominators that can be taken as given by all. The tenets proposed above hopefully constitute such a beginning for constructive discussion.
Impacts
Water management is of great concern to all, from those in the government, to those in the industry, and in the academia. In the aftermath of the industrial revolution, our tendency is to concentrate on efficiently solving water problems by reducing them to well-defined questions, and solving them with specialized tools, yielding well-defined results. Unfortunately, emerging challenges of water utilization are forcing us to address large-scale, interconnected issues that are far from simple, and are far from well-defined. They involve inanimate science as well as abstract human values. To constructively address these complex, interconnected issues of science and society, it is necessary to have a consensus about at least some of the basic elements or tenets that all, from those who are concerned with the science to those understand society, can agree upon. A set of basic elements that satisfy the needs is analogous to the articles of constitution that provide a
foundation for social living. It is with this vision that the tenets of water management described in the report have been formulated. An article describing these tenets is to appear as a Guest Editorial in the journal Ground Water in early 2005. The hope is that this work will catalyze legislators and leaders of institutions devoted to water and natural resources around the world, and encourage them to formulate a set of philosophical tenets that can guide civilized use of water and natural resources.
Publications
- T. N. Narasimhan. 2003. Maxwell, Electromagnetism, and Fluid Flow in Resistive Media, EOS, Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union, 84(44), 469, Nov.
- T. N. Narasimhan. 2003. A Dilemma: Adapt to Nature's Constraint or Subdue the Earth?, EOS Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union, 84(40), 411, Oct.
- T. N. Narasimhan. 2003. New Horizons for the Corporate Hydrologist, Ground Water, 41(1), 6.
- T. N. Narasimhan. 2003. A Finite World, Earth Sciences, and Public Trust, Ground Water, 41(1), 11-14.
- T. N. Narasimhan. 2003. Groundwater recharge. [Letter] Journal of the Geological Society of India. 62(6):782-783, Dec.
- T. N. Narasimhan. 2003. A finite world, earth sciences, and public trust. [Reprint] Environmental Geology. 44(7):872-875, Oct.
- T. N. Narasimhan. 2003. M. King Hubbert: A centennial tribute. [Editorial Material] Ground Water. 41(5):561, Sep-Oct.
- T. N. Narasimhan. 2003. Untitled. [Letter] Physics Today. 56(7):12, Jul.
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Progress 01/01/02 to 12/31/02
Outputs
Recent judicial decision on retirement of 50,000 acres of poorly drained lands in the San Joaquin Valley is a milestone in California's water history. The industry has recognized that the Central Valley is stressed beyond its capacity to support agriculture at the present scale. A logical question concerns the levels at which agriculture can be sustained over long periods of time in the valley. To achieve sustainability, it is necessary to recognize that surface water, groundwater, and ecosystems together constitute a single resource. These resources must be managed together so that short-term benefits to the user are balanced against long-term benefit to the community. Recent legislative actions, motivated by the state's responsibility to assure beneficial water use without waste, are moving in the direction of mandatory integrated water management. Nevertheless, impediments remain. Groundwater use is still governed by property law, stemming from British traditions.
Except in some restricted cases, groundwater pumpage is largely unregulated. Because Californians depend heavily on groundwater for municipal, agricultural and industrial water supplies, the goal of integrated water management in California will remain elusive as long as groundwater is kept outside the scope of the state's public trust responsibilities. Despite the industry's recognition of the inevitability of land retirement, the approach to water use in the Central Valley and elsewhere is still dictated by a mindset of technological control to maintain current levels of agricultural land use. Long-term sustainability requires that a transition be made to practicing agriculture over lesser acreage in carefully delineated areas. To facilitate this transition, a need exists to direct research in two new areas. The first is to develop methodologies and criteria needed to assess the sustainable capacities of watersheds and groundwater basins, and translating such knowledge into
appropriate land-use strategies. The second is to set in place integrated monitoring systems for surface water, groundwater, and associated aquatic ecosystems. Historically, California has been preoccupied with aggressive development of water resources. The notion of long-term sustainability is novel, alien to the state's historic traditions. Considering the complex relationships among surface water, groundwater, the soil, the landscape, and ecosystems, as well as long-term uncertainties associated with California's climate, sustainable water management strategies will have to be flexible to allow adaptation to unforeseen impacts. To facilitate adaptive management, monitoring networks will have to become an integral part of resource management so as to facilitate early detection of potentially unacceptable impacts. A need exists to initiate research to design and set in place monitoring stations, and to create institutions that are vested with the responsibility of maintaining these
stations, gathering and analyzing data, and disseminating information.
Impacts
Sustainable management of groundwater resources is a matter of serious concern to the Groundwater Resources Association of California, a body of practicing groundwater professionals. The ideas expressed above form part of a White Paper of the GRA entitled, 'Developing, Managing, and Sustaining California's Groundwater Resources'. Based on our scientific understanding of groundwater in California, and on the human aspects of California's water, the White Paper makes a series of recommendations towards sustainable groundwater use in the state. The recommendations address: groundwater basins as units of water management, hierarchical institutions, integrated resource monitoring, research directions, economics, and education. Authored by Narasimhan and Vicki Kretsinger (a member of the Board of Directors of GRA), this document will soon become part of GRA's vision about the future of groundwater in California. It is expected that the ideas contained in the White Paper
will become widely disseminated among professionals, policy makers, researchers, and students interested in rational groundwater development in California and elsewhere in the nation.
Publications
- Narasimhan, T. N. July 30, 2002. Property rights, public rights, and a finite world, Open Page, The Hindu, Chennai, India.
- Narasimhan, T. N. July 29, 2002. Science, society, and Yucca Mountain, electronic on-line debate, Science.
- Narasimhan, T. N. October 1, 2002. On the elusive liberal arts education, electronic on-line debate, Science.
- Narasimhan, T. N. November, 2002. A finite world, earth sciences, and public trust, Report No, 51757, Earth Sciences Division, Laerence Berkeley National Laboratory.
- Flay, R. B. September 2002. Managing groundwater quality and quantity in the San Joaquin Valley, California: Integrated strategies for protecting groundwater in arid regions, Environmental Science, Policy and Management.
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Progress 01/01/01 to 12/31/01
Outputs
A comparative study has been carried out of the legislative foundations of groundwater management in the arid states of the American west, namely, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Texas. Despite historical preference for appropriation rights favoring economic exploitation, these states, except California, have passed laws mandating integrated beneficial use of surface water and groundwater. The constitutions of these states have been modified to explicitly stipulate that groundwater is a public trust. This stipulation has inevitably emerged from scientific knowledge about groundwater and its vital linkages to surface water, soils, the landscape, and ecosystems. Traditional politically-based water management districts have been supplanted by natural resource districts based on watersheds and groundwater basins as management units. Existing institutions have been adapted and new ones created for continued monitoring and assessment of groundwater
system response, setting performance standards, and enforcing remedial action. California lags significantly behind the other western states in sustainable management of its groundwater resources. Over a century, groundwater resources and the associated soil substrate have degraded significantly in California due to aggressive, economically-driven agriculture. The degradation pattern continues. Yet, no legislative effort has been made to assert its public trust responsibility of groundwater resources and set in place institutions for sustainable long-term management of groundwater. California relies largely on the judicial system to adjudicate between economics and protection of groundwater infrastructure. Groundwater is legally treated under property law, although the state's constitution declares it to be a public trust. Groundwater needs to be evaluated and managed in terms of natural resources units (such as watersheds, and groundwater basins). Natural resources units are finite
systems, with limited capacity for periodic (annual, multi-annual) renewal of water, soil, and nutrients. The challenge is to devise the best scientific strategies and set in place the institutions and policies to indefinitely extend the integrity of the infrastructure through adaptive management. The difficulty is that benefits and damage have to be balanced simultaneously on several space scales (a farm to the basin) and time scales (seasonal to centuries). Adaptive management requires continued monitoring of the resource infrastructure in response to changing climatic conditions and human intervention. Setting up the monitoring systems, and interpreting the data so gathered are part of the state's public trust responsibility. Other western states have shown the way in bringing together science and humanity in regard to water management.
Impacts
Despite strong scientific evidence, California continues uncontrolled exploitation of groundwater for short-term economic gains. The groundwater reservoir is continuing to degrade in quantity and quality. This research is intended to highlight the state's public trust responsibility to stem this degradation, and set in place appropriate institutions and policies. The most significant natural resources paradigm shift of the new millennium is the change from a mind-set of new resource discoveries for ever-continuing economic growth to one of learning to live within bounded systems with limited periodic renewal of vital resources. Although California's economic institutions are reticent to accept this reality, the state is evolving slowly in the direction of learning to manage finite resources. Birth of new institutions such as CALFED attest to this evolution. By examining how other states of the arid west are adapting to the new paradigm, this research explores
deficiencies of current groundwater management practices in California and looks for approaches for long-term beneficial use of groundwater that also ensure integrity of the soil-water-landscape infrastructure. The goal is not to negate beneficial use of a resource, but to enable a wise use of something that is vital to all Californians. At a time when a majority of groundwater research projects are focused on solving short-term, narrowly defined, production-oriented issues, this research attempts to draw attention to the importance of long-term questions that the State has a responsibility to address.
Publications
- Narasimhan, T. N., and Reynolds, J., 2000. Protection of subsurface aquifers: A broader context, Acta Geologica Hungarica, 43 (2), 157-172.
- Flay, R. B., and Narasimhan, T. N., 2000. Application of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to Integrated Water Management of the San Joaquin River Basin, California, EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union (Abstract) Vol. 81, No. 48, page F530.
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Progress 01/01/00 to 12/31/00
Outputs
Ever since California's statehood, Californians' attitude to water has been continuously evolving, reflecting the conflicts of an ambitious population with the constraints of nature's bounds and changing social values. The future of water in California cannot anymore be reduced to a set of problems that can simply be left for technology to solve. Californians are now in a period of transition from a technology-driven paradigm of conquering nature for unlimited prosperity to one of consilience among technology, exploitation of nature and accessibility of natural resources to all segments of society. Vigorous public debate and legal battles on water that are part of contemporary California life are manifestations of a society coming to grips with the reality that its central belief of 'right' to exploit nature has become outdated. To compound the problem, science has learned that the present rate of agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley is not sustainable. An important
question is whether there exists an upper bound to the acreage in this region over which the resource infrastructure is adequate to sustain agriculture into the indefinite future. If so, how does one define that upper bound? Although geology, geochemistry, soil science, agronomy, plant biology and other disciplines will have to work together to answer this question, profound human issues have also to be addressed. California's agriculture and municipalities have traditionally functioned within a mind-set of 'right' to water and a feeling of entitlement to profit from those rights or to encourage urban expansion. But, this mind-set conflicts with the doctrine of public trust which is part of California's Constitution. Despite the fact that public trust is legally restricted to navigable waters, philosophically the doctrine goes to the heart of making vital natural resources accessible to all segments of a democratic society. In an ever-changing world of water, public trust does not
negate water use. Rather, it stipulates that society is obligated to manage its water and natural resources in such a way that their use does not unduly impair vital public benefits. The big social challenge is to make collective judgments on how water use affects the environment and the society in a situation where nature's forces are very difficult to predict and where the impacts of certain types of uses may lead to irreversible damages. The doctrine of public trust will have to play an increasingly important role in California's water future. It will require the creation of new institutions such as the CALFED which would guide water resources management to new levels of harmony among science, technology, water institutions and citizens groups towards constructive cooperation. To facilitate rational management necessitated by public trust, science and technology will have to move away from a mode of continued discovery of new resources and optimal modes of exploitation towards a
mode of continuous integrated monitoring to provide reliable, unbiased information for a rational sustainable management of complex, but finite natural systems.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- Reynolds, J. L., 2000. Water Resources Development in Santa Clara Valley, California: Insights into the Human-Hydrologic Relationship, M. S. thesis, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, June, 2000.
- Reynolds, J. L. and T. N. Narasimhan., 2000. Water Resources Development in Santa Clara Valley, California: Insights into the Human-Hydrologic Relationship, eport No. 46598, Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,June 2000.
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Progress 01/01/99 to 12/31/99
Outputs
Long-term sustainability of agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley is matter of concern to Californians. Despite historical economic benefits of agriculture, increasing salinization of land and water, the consequent degradation of ecosystems, and changing demography lie at the root of these sustainability concerns. They involve physical and chemical changes to the natural system created by humans and response of the humans in turn to such degradation. The Santa Clara Valley, located on the southern side of the San Francisco Bay, is a natural resource system that has much useful knowledge to offer in addressing the sustainability concerns of the more complex San Joaquin Valley. A self-contained physiographic and geologic basin, it enjoys a well-managed water resource system, integrating surface water, groundwater, artificial recharge, imported water, flood control and ecosystem restoration. A study of the relationships between humans and the hydrologic cycle in the
Santa Clara Valley over the past century has shown that, (1) responses of the local population to unsustainable resource development has been largely successful, (2) proposals for the physical management of water incorporated evolving relationships between humans and the hydrologic cycle, and (3) the integrated response of the humans to water resources management has been aided by the fact that the boundary of the natural resource system (the physiographic basin) more or less coincides with the administrative basin (the County, the Water District). At the turn of the century, the invention of pumps and the emerging availability of electric power witnessed a rapid over draft of groundwater, accompanied by declines in water levels and land subsidence in the region. Although farmers and water experts were aware of the connection between local precipitation and the deep aquifers via the pediment gravels, a large section of local population believed that overdraft could continue as soon as
the drought ran its course. It was only with the major drought of the mid 1920s that a general consensus emerged that integrates management of surface water and groundwater with artificial recharge was imperative for local common good. This consensus was the foundation that enabled the creation of the Santa Clara Valley Water District, paving the way for judicious water management. The sustainability of agriculture and natural resources in the San Joaquin Valley encompasses a much larger area and involves physical problems of water quantity as well as chemical problems of water and soil. Yet, San Joaquin Valley constitutes a well-defined physiographic basin, potentially amenable to integrated management. From what we know, problems of salinization will continue to render more and more and land unfit for agriculture into the distant future if a concerted effort is not made to understand the physical limitations of the natural system and to devise integrated ways of managing the
available resources in a manner that can be sustained. The success of water management Santa Clara Valley provides an optimism for the future of San Joaquin Valley.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- Narasimhan, T. N. and Reynolds, J. 1999. Protection of subsurface aquifers: A broader context, invited paper, International Conference on The Geology of Today for Tomorrow, Hungarian Geological Society, Budapest, Hungary, June 21-22, 1999.
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