Drought and flooding often have the same root cause—improper management of the water cycle. So in areas with historic water supply challenges, how can we do a better job capturing stormwater where it lands?
This Earth Month, TreePeople’s Research and Watershed Health teams teamed up to release a new report that explores this question. The Acton-Agua Dulce Drought Resiliency Report takes a deep dive into the complex environmental, social and regulatory context of northern Los Angeles County to better understand regional groundwater recharge challenges.
The team found that despite generally good stewardship on behalf of the residents, water supply issues in this region persisted because of human development on top of an already steep topography with low water recharge rates.
This introduced additional challenges to an already dynamic and sensitive landscape, making runoff and erosion worse. Because of this, they determined, solutions will require active management of water resources—not merely limiting disruptions like development, land clearance, road construction, and the like.
The team’s investigation suggested that one way to create a more reliable long-term water supply would be constructing numerous swale-like systems called Native Dryland Bioswales within strategic portions of the region.
These swales help to capture and percolate stormwater from routine storm events, while also reducing erosion and sedimentation rates by stabilizing soil using native plants. Similar strategies have been successfully deployed in China, India, Mexico, Arizona and other parts of the world within comparable landscapes, and often at much larger scales.
But changes like this won’t happen overnight—it’s important to recognize that landscape transformation, to balance the effects of urban development, is something that has to be implemented across several decades, requiring patience and sustained commitment from both the local communities & relevant authorities.
The Research Team partnered with the Watershed Health team to develop the Acton-Agua Dulce Drought Resiliency Report, as part of Rural Water Supply Reliability, funded under the Budget Act of 2021 and administered by the Urban and Multibenefit Drought Relief Program by the California Department of Water Resources.