Using Indicators to Measure Water Resources Sustainability in California

As part of the California Water Plan Update 2013, the California Department of Water Resources has teamed with the University of California, Davis and U.S. EPA Region 9 to develop an analytical framework to quantify water resources sustainability indicators for California. The California Water Sustainability Indicators Framework ("Framework") describes indicators that will inform us about water system conditions and relationships to ecosystems, social systems, and economic systems. The Framework provides: 1) a logical hierarchy of goals and objectives for organizing indicators, 2) a suite of suitable indicators, and 3) analytical methods for measuring sustainability relative to targets. The Framework is being tested at state and region scales. The Framework includes the Water Footprint (the water required to provide goods and services) as an index of sustainability in its own right. The sustainability indicators are being presented in an online "decision-support tool" to improve California's assessment of water sustainability.