ABSTRACT
California has the largest population, economy, and agricultural sector of the 50 states within the United States of America. It has achieved this status despite a highly variable climate and a sharp geographic mismatch between the locations of water supplies and demands: most precipitation falls in the state’s northern and eastern mountain ranges, and most population and farming centres are in coastal plains and inland valleys to the south and west. During the early to mid-twentieth century, local, state, and federal agencies constructed a vast, interconnected water infrastructure network to store water for seasonal irrigation and dry years and to deliver water to distant demand centres. In recent decades, the management emphasis has shifted toward using water resources more efficiently, reflecting new environmental sensibilities and constraints on resource availability that preclude meeting new demands solely through continued expansion of water supply infrastructure.
