Water in Los Angeles: Rethinking the Current Strategy

Abstract

Southern California has been subject to multi-year droughts that are expected to become more frequent in coming years. While only receiving 25% of the state’s annual rainfall, Southern California is responsible for 80% of the state’s water demand, necessitating imports from Northern California and out-of-state. Projects for local water management have been undertaken. However, a lack of funding has prevented larger sustainable water projects in Southern California from being implemented. Additionally, a large portion of the current funding is being used towards desalination projects that compromise important ecological functions and services. Given the existing technology and current political and funding landscape, we propose the implementation of urban engineering projects and greenspaces to increase local water supply and decrease the dependency on imported and unsustainable water sources. The collective approach of increasing stormwater capture through greenspaces and engineering solutions would increase equitable access to clean water and city-wide resilience for future droughts without the ecological risks and lack of equity posed by current strategies such as desalination.