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Informatics for California Water Data

Project Overview

Theme: Environment and Climate
Approach: Informatics
Status: Complete (2020)

Data fragmentation is one of the most challenging aspects of water governance and research. Data about water management organizations, infrastructure projects, permits, hydrological features, water supply, and water quality are collected via different systems, over different geographies, and at different timescales.

This collaboration between DataLab and researchers in UC Davis’ Environmental Science and Policy department established data management workflows to develop and implement a database architecture that can be used to assemble water data at different levels of aggregation, extend to new datasets, visualize and map data in different ways for policy stakeholders, and eventually become available to other researchers and government agencies. 

This Start-Up project focused on sustainable groundwater management datasets, specifically the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in California. SGMA is one of the most important water management activities in California and an extensive experiment in developing new institutions for water policy and management. This project integrates data from multiple geographies and organizations related to SGMA, including but not limited to groundwater basins, water districts, management plans, and individual stakeholders.

DataLab Contacts

  • Michele Tobias (technical lead)
  • Naomi Kalman
  • Pamela Reynolds
  • Carl Stahmer

Water Data Team

  • Professor Mark Lubell
  • Associate Professor Tyler Scott

Engaged Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars

  • Darcy Bostic
  • Kristin Dobbin
  • Amanda Fencel
  • Linda Mendez Barriento
  • Rich Pauloo