Page 64 - Mapping the Nation: Taking Climate Action

New methods, such as drip irrigation of vineyards, take a water-wise approach to agriculture. with investors buying land simply to sell the water rights to developers elsewhere in need of the resource. "The drought affects everybody, but it affects some people more than others," he said. "In some areas, a landowner might have an unquestionably secure water right. In others, a grower might be told to go from using three acre-feet of water to less than an acre-foot, a stark reduction." There's a domino effect, too. A grower told to use less water often grows fewer crops, if any at all. That means fewer crops are making their way to stores and restaurants, resulting in higher prices. "I don't think people fully understand the magnitude of the drought and its effect on food security," said Mica Heilmann, co-owner and principal agricultural and spatial scientist with Land IQ. Watching Water Use California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 required the formation of a network of regional groundwater sustainability agencies across the state to manage the scarce water supply. Each area must show that groundwater isn't being over drafted. The California Department of Water Resources reviews plans developed at the local level that, once approved, dictate who gets to pump, how much, and where, using maps and data from Land IQ to inform those important decisions. It isn't as easy as simply noting how much water has been pumped. Much of what's pumped out seeps back underground. By measuring evapotranspiration—the amount of water that leaves plants and the soil for the atmosphere— Land IQ scientists can determine water use field by field within a slim margin of error, plus or minus 5 to 7 percent. That's because crops each take in and emit a certain amount of water depending on their type and maturity as well as climate conditions. The levels of evapotranspiration are physically measured by Land IQ on the ground using a network of nearly 100 weather stations. If Land IQ is looking at an alfalfa field, for example, and taps one of the hundreds of nearby stations for data, its analysts can determine how much water is being used at that specific location. The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct runs from the Sierra Nevada through a series of channels and canals into drought-stricken Southern California. It provides much-needed water to large metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles but is a major source of contention for the agriculture industry in Central and Northern California. 63