FEATURE ARTICLE

August 2008

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Water Resources and Climate Change: Accommodating the Demise of ‘What’s Past Is Prologue’

Much of the current discussion on climate change and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) focuses on the potential for projects to exacerbate climate change through emission of greenhouse gases. However, climate change has other implications for CEQA analysis, particularly in the context of water supply planning and related projects, wherein climate change may affect predictions of availability, which in turn affects cost-benefit assessment, the potential range of impacts, and evaluation of overriding considerations. Water resource managers must start to address the potential for climate change, albeit in an environment fraught with uncertainty, data gaps, and technical challenges.