California supplies water to about 40 million people, sustains the most productive agricultural region in the United States, and is a biodiversity hotspot.

Through a 2-year, $9.1 million research project — Collaboratory for Equity in Water Allocation aka COEQWAL — researchers are exploring ways to distribute California surface water more equitably among agriculture, cities and unincorporated communities, and the environment.

In the first phase of COEQWAL, researchers will focus on three main areas: access to drinking water for communities that depend on surface water, Chinook salmon recovery and salinity management in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

“California’s methods for parceling out water were built for a previous era, and not our new climate of worsening droughts and extreme weather,” says Theresa Maldonado, UC vice president for research and innovation. “These are the first steps toward correcting historical inequities in California’s water policies so that people in every corner of the state have access to the water they need for their lives, livelihoods and health.”

Read the whole story from the UC Newsroom

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