CASCaDE: Computational Assessments of Scenarios of Change for the Delta Ecosystem

From the above: ...The Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, at the upstream end of the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary, is home to vital ecosystems that provide habitat for many endangered species and that serve as an important stop on the Pacific Flyway for migratory birds. The Delta provides drinking water supplies to two-thirds of Californians and is a major source of water for California agriculture. The health of the estuary’s ecosystem has long been in decline. Continued subsidence of Delta islands, in conjunction with sea level rise and the likelihood of major earthquakes, threatens hundreds of miles of fragile levees. As a result, the Delta’s ecosystem and the role of its waterways as a central conduit for large-scale infrastructure that transports fresh water from northern California to southern California are vulnerable. Failure of the Delta to sustain its ecological and freshwater supply services would be catastrophic for California, with economic impacts extending to the national level. In response to these challenges, in 2009 California passed the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act with the coequal goals of achieving water supply reliability and restoring the Delta’s ecosystem. However, critical gaps in our understanding of how the Delta may respond to major climate and infrastructure changes over the next several decades complicate decisions about how to achieve these goals. Assessing the effects of likely climate and infrastructure changes on this system is essential to making informed and robust planning decisions. The CASCaDE project was conceived to build on several decades of USGS science in this system to address this need. Multiple scientists are using linked models to evaluate the implications of a range of future scenarios on various aspects of the Bay-Delta and its watershed. ...