On the Water Front

Selected tag(s): community resilience

Wukchumni Tribe showcases restoration project at annual gathering for California Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program

Darlene Franco sits on a log at a restoration site

Wukchumni Tribal Chairperson and CEO Darlene Franco sits amid recent native plantings in a restoration area near Visalia funded through the California Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program.

Land and water conservation efforts are often implemented in highly local, context-specific ways, shaped by the land itself, the people who steward it, and the unique challenges they face. When the people leading this work have the chance to connect, it creates opportunities for deeper learning, collaboration, and a stronger sense of purpose. 

Last month, the third annual Pause and Reflect meeting did just that, providing an opportunity to connect for participants of California’s Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program (MLRP) from around the state. The event brought together collaborators across sectors to strengthen the MLRP grantee community of practice, reflect on progress, and co-create a shared vision for continued advancement and support. After three years of monthly virtual meetings and semiannual in-person events, it was clear that regularly convening MLRP grantees working toward similar goals and facing similar challenges, across a variety of geographies, has created a solid peer learning network and a genuine community of practice. 

MLRP complements California’s groundwater sustainability efforts by incentivizing land repurposing projects that conserve water, enhance recharge, and deliver environmental and community co-benefits. As one attendee noted, MLRP isn’t only about water. The program supports practitioners working across diverse ecosystems and cultural landscapes, balancing the complex needs of both the natural environment and the people that inhabit it.  

Read More »

Posted in Agriculture, California, Groundwater, Land Repurposing / Also tagged , , , , , , , | Authors: / Comments are closed

Observations from World Water Week: Indigenous voices gain center stage; groundwater remains largely overlooked

Aerial view of audience and stage at World Water WeekLast month EDF co-hosted a side event at World Water Week in Stockholm with an ambitious goal: to catalyze collaboration around a global movement to tackle the groundwater crises affecting many regions of the world.

The event, co-hosted with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and WELL Labs, addressed the need to raise the profile of the groundwater crisis at international water and climate change convenings like World Water Week, particularly given groundwater’s importance to food security, community health and livelihoods.

Despite the limited attention on groundwater at World Water Week, we observed other encouraging shifts at the conference this year, including the elevation of Indigenous voices and a greater focus on the connections between water resilience and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Here is a deeper look at these World Water Week highlights.

Read More »

Posted in Agriculture, Global, Groundwater / Also tagged , , , , , , | Authors: / Comments are closed

Measuring what matters: Communities in India assess water solutions

People behind a farm pond with a staff gauge to measure water levels

A team installed a staff gauge in a farm pond in Toopran, Telangana, to measure water levels over time. Photo credit: Vanya Mehta

This blog was co-authored by Vanya Mehta from WELL Labs.

Water-saving solutions behave differently across India, depending on a region’s hydrogeology and land use patterns. An intervention that is successful in one landscape may be a failure in another. By nature, water is dynamic, and, with the added variability of climate change, difficult to predict. As our scientific understanding evolves, both of water and solutions to conserve it, there is a need to continuously monitor the impact of these solutions on both farmers and water.

In most cases, the water sector relies on short-term monitoring and evaluation (M&E) assessments that measure inputs and outputs, rather than long-term outcomes. This can lead to gaps in our long-term understanding of water sustainability and equity.

For example, in discussions with four experienced civil society organizations (CSOs) in India, we found that donors required them to report on the number of outputs, such as rainwater harvesting units constructed or number of farmers trained on a water-saving production technique. Water levels, soil moisture, and other indicators of water conservation were not measured during the projects. In such a scenario, it would be difficult to confirm whether the units constructed or farmers trained led to any impactful change in critical outcomes related to groundwater levels, recharge potential, agricultural yields, or total irrigation applied. Both secondary data and farmer recall data is not sufficient to understand variable environmental impacts.

To solve this issue, the hydrology team working on the project (Ishita Jalan, Lakshmikantha NR, Clinton Fernandes, Anas KP, Vivek Grewal, and Gopal Penny) has developed a protocol for field-based, community-led continuous monitoring.

Read More »

Posted in Agriculture, Groundwater, India / Also tagged , , , , | Authors: , / Leave a comment

Here’s how land repurposing is beginning to transform strained communities and ecosystems in California

Satellite image of California's Central Valley

California’s sprawling Central Valley is confronting declining groundwater levels and increasing ‘climate whiplash’ between drought and flood.

Next time you find yourself looking up driving directions on your phone, scroll over to central California and zoom out a bit. Turn on the satellite layer. What you’ll see is a mindboggling patchwork. A massive brown and green checkerboard, cut up in rectangles, sliced by highways, besieged by a ring of arid foothills. This is California’s famed and troubled Central Valley — an agricultural powerhouse that’s increasingly associated with headlines about disappearing groundwater and growing waves of flood and drought. Filled with sharp lines, it’s not a landscape one would immediately associate with collaboration and transformation.   Read More »

Posted in Agriculture, California, Community, Drought, Groundwater, Land Repurposing, Uncategorized / Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Authors: / Leave a comment

Fields of Innovation: A Trip Showcasing Multi-Benefit Land Repurposing

Embarking on a field trip can often feel like stepping into a storybook, especially when the narrative and scenery revolve around transforming landscapes. This feeling was palpable last November when the Environmental Defense Fund organized a trip to Merced and Stanislaus Counties in California. The journey wasn’t just a tour; it was a vivid illustration of how multi-benefit land repurposing (MLRP) is bolstering groundwater sustainability in areas hardest hit by climate change.  Read More »

Posted in Agriculture, California, Community, Drought, Groundwater / Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Authors: / Leave a comment

Revisiting a centuries-old approach to farming that embraces water scarcity.

As discussions at COP28 wrestle with climate impacts on global food and water security, we hear from a Hopi farmer on his thriving practice of dry farming and his hopes for shared learning in Dubai.

______

The arid climate of the Hopi reservation in northeastern Arizona receives a mere 8.5 inches of annual rainfall. For perspective, the yearly United States average is 30 inches. Despite this severe aridity, for over 3,000 years, the Hopi people have stewarded an extraordinary agricultural tradition centered on dry farming.

Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson is an Indigenous Resiliency Specialist at the University of Arizona and a leading practitioner of Hopi dry farming — a form of agriculture that eschews irrigation in regions with limited water moisture. As a 250th-generation Hopi dry farmer, his ongoing traditional practices are a  testament to the power of cultural values and the potential of climate-adaptive farming. These ongoing Hopi farming practices defy modern notions of crop needs and vulnerability in areas with limited irrigation and water supply. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture, Arizona, Colorado River, Community / Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Authors: / Leave a comment