Informing coastal and marine resource management, watershed restoration, and optimizing flood control and water supply reliability for users and the environment
A suite of activities is underway in the North-Central California outer coast and the Russian River watershed to enhance the climate resilience of this landscape. In both the Russian River estuary and outer coast, NOAA and U.S. Geological Survey are developing the Coastal Storm Modeling System and Our Coast, Our Future decision-support tools. These tools will provide sea-level rise scenarios for local, state, and federal partners to help identify natural resource and infrastructure vulnerabilities, update local plans, and inform natural resource planning and management. Partners will collaborate to identify and map priority areas for conservation, restoration, water resilience, and management actions.
Along the outer coast, NOAA’s Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary is leading an effort with the California Landscape Conservation Cooperative, U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, local non-government organizations, and numerous state and local agencies to develop California’s first comprehensive adaptation plan for the coast and ocean. The team has finalized a Vulnerability Assessment report detailing the process, methodology, and results from a climate vulnerability assessment of 44 resources (species, habitats, and ecosystem services) in the study region. Based on the results of the report, a working group of the Sanctuary Advisory Council developed 81 prioritized adaptive management recommendations for the region’s management agencies to take in response to the most significant climate drivers identified in the report, including sea level rise, wave action and coastal erosion, precipitation, ocean acidification, and upwelling (which influences sea surface temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, currents, mixing, and stratification).
In the Russian River watershed federal, state, and local partners are working to provide data and tools to enhance resilience to climate and extreme events. For example, NOAA, the Sonoma County Water Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Reclamation, California Department of Water Resources, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography are working with the Army Corps of Engineers to support Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations. The research will include using Lake Mendocino as a pilot to determine whether more sophisticated hydro-meteorological forecasting data can be useful to help inform water management decisions in a manner which reflects current and forecasted conditions. The research is projected to be a five year effort.
In all, priorities for the Russian River watershed include:
- Rebuilding endangered coho and threatened Chinook and steelhead stocks to sustainable levels through habitat protection and restoration
- Improving frost, rainfall, and river forecasts in the Russian River watershed through improved data collection and modeling
- Increasing community and ecosystem resilience to flooding and drought through improved planning and water management strategies
A storymap describes these efforts across the coast and watershed.
For additional information, please contact:
Natalie Cosentino-Manning, NOAA, 707-575-6081
Sara Hutto, NOAA, 415-970-5253
Maria Brown, 415-561-6622
