Life beneath the ground, especially microbial, plays a crucial yet often overlooked role in delivering ecosystem services and supporting ‘green infrastructure.’ This talk will provide an overview of belowground (soil, vadose, aquifers) biodiversity, highlighting its practical significance, the threats it faces, and strategies for preservation and sustainable management.
This Lunch-MAR presentation covers a brief history of the Scott Valley managed aquifer recharge project, permitting and regulatory requirements, challenges in project implementation, and progress in evaluating benefits.
A recently completed first-of-its-kind study, the Merced River Watershed Flood-MAR Reconnaissance Study, looks at projected climate change impacts in the Merced watershed and how strategies like Flood-Managed Aquifer Recharge and others can help reduce flood risk, improve water supply, replenish groundwater supplies, and support ecosystems in the Merced River watershed.
State Water Resources Control Board, CA Department of Water Resources, and CA Department of Fish and Wildlife co-hosted a workshop on the 180-day temporary water rights permit application process and the technical and regulatory assistance available for local public agencies working on recharge projects using high flows.
This workshop reviewed actual Flood-MAR efforts, highlight successes as well as missed opportunities, and culminated in the identification of Network actions that are needed to place California on the path to realizing the goal of increasing average annual managed groundwater recharge by 500,000 ac-ft.
In this April 2021 LunchMAR Session, Orit Kalman (CSUS), Jenny Marr (DWR) and Mike Antos (Santec) offer an update on the Flood-MAR network.
Dual presentation on Building Partnerships and Opportunities from a Tribal Liaison Perspective by Dirk Charley, Dunlap Band of Mono Indians, and Making Connections with Sharon Farrell, CA Landscape Stewardship Network.
Topic I. Partnership and Opportunities for Collaboration: The solutions to California’s water challenges can be effectively advanced through partnerships among experts and practitioners with the capacity and motivation to coordinate efforts and exchange knowledge and expertise. Making Flood-MAR possible requires a network that accommodates multiple levels of engagement of existing initiatives and collaboratives.
Institutional silos and inefficiencies impede watershed-based solutions, multi-sector management strategies, and multi-benefit projects. Cooperation and alignment of agencies and partners is essential to facilitating the preplanned and real-time decision-making needed for Flood-MAR projects. Achieving the public and private benefits of Flood-MAR requires expediting permitting processes, incentivizing landowner participation, and protecting floodplains and recharge sites.
Copyright 2022-Present, Flood-MAR and Contributing Authors.
