Watershed resilience involves deep understanding of the water resources and communities of the Russian River watershed, a review of current and future vulnerabilities in the watershed, and strategies that can help move the needle toward greater watershed resilience.
The Russian River Watershed Resilience Pilot applies a five-step resilience planning framework. This framework is consistent with DWR’s Watershed Resilience Program resilience planning framework with locally tailored priorities specific for the Russian River watershed.
The Framework consists of five main steps (cycle figure):
- Set the Stage — convene a diverse and inclusive watershed network, set vision and goals for this resilience planning effort, and identify the components, interdependencies, and bounds of the planning effort.
- Explore Hazards — understand current state of the system, historical climate influences on the system, and future projections and uncertainty.
- Assess Vulnerabilities and Risks — identify water resource and socio-economic indicators, assess the vulnerability of watershed systems to current — and a range of plausible future climate conditions — and use risk analysis to identify high-priority focus areas.
- Develop Adaptation Strategies — identify and evaluate a wide spectrum of adaptation options for high priority focus areas, consider sustainability principles, and recommend no- or low-regret strategies considering uncertainty.
- Implement and Monitor — develop the timeline and triggers for implementing selected strategies through on-the-ground actions; fund, implement, and monitor the performance of actions; and adapt strategies as needed.
A summary of the progress to date for each of these steps is provided in the following sections. Note that the resilience planning process is dynamic and this page will be periodically updated with new progress, summaries, and revisions. Some sections are indicated as “coming soon” as that step in the planning framework has not yet been initiated.
