WaterAccounting Customer Success

SITKA CASE STUDY: ROSEDALE-RIO BRAVO WATER STORAGE DISTRICT

Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Accounting and Trading Platform Advances

Sustainable Management Formed in 1959 by landowners, Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District encompasses approximately The open-source platform – developed in partnership by 44,000 acres of land with over half Rosedale, EDF, Olsson, and Sitka Technology Group – being irrigated agriculture. Nearly all of the district’s water supplies is expected to play a significant role in creating a more are recharged into the groundwater resilient water system for generations to come. . By replenishing the aquifer, the region is able to keep water levels high and keep pumping costs low. Formed in 1959 by landowners in Kern County, Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District (Rosedale) encompasses approximately 44,000 acres of land in Central Valley, California. Over half those acres are irrigated agriculture, and nearly all the district’s water supplies are Founded in 1967, EDF is a non-profit recharged into the groundwater aquifer by the district. Replenishing environmental advocacy group that’s the aquifer keeps water levels high and pumping costs low, but it mission is to preserve the natural systems on which all life depends. doesn’t always keep groundwater demand from outpacing supply. Guided by science and economics, the organization finds practical and That’s a problem, especially in light of California’s Sustainable lasting solutions to the most serious of environmental problems facing Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which requires groundwater the planet, such as global warming, basins to balance groundwater demand and supply by 2040. ecosystem restoration, and more. SITKA CASE STUDY: ROSEDALE-RIO BRAVO WATER STORAGE DISTRICT

To help landowners in their district navigate the SGMA transition, Rosedale partnered with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a non- profit organization dedicated to solving environmental problems with science, economics, law, and innovative private-sector partnerships. Prior to the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater THE CHALLENGE Management Act, California had been For many years, California has been experiencing groundwater level declines the only state in the due to severe drought conditions. This has forced landowners to dig their wells western deeper and deeper resulting in many wells drying up, land sinking, and some without a comprehensive communities running out of . groundwater management

In response to the groundwater emergency and the adoption of the 2014 Sustainable policy. Under SGMA, the Groundwater Management Act, Rosedale – in partnership with EDF – issued a state identified 109 high Request for Qualifications and Proposals (RFQP) to develop a Water Trading Pilot and medium priority Platform for Kern County in March of 2019. The RFQP involved a multi-phased basins. Of those, 21 development of a web-based user interface to facilitate water trading and groundwater basins were classified accounting across the District. The resulting online platform would facilitate water critically overdrafted and transactions, water accounting, and incorporate trading rules. From the start, were required to submit Rosedale and EDF envisioned expanding the water trading program to include other sustainability plans to the water districts in Kern County and beyond – provided the pilot proved successful. state by January 2020.

THE SOLUTION

Sitka responded to the RFQP and was awarded the task of building an open-source online platform in April of 2019. The first phase involved the development of a user- friendly tool that helps landowners and growers make more informed decisions by accessing real-time information via a personalized dashboard that shows their water usage to date and overall water allocation set by the District. “We developed this accounting and trading platform because we want to provide landowners and growers with as many tools as possible to manage their water more sustainably and balance their water budget.”

Eric Averett, General Manager, RRB WSD

The landowner dashboard displays water usage data and overall water allocation set by the District. SITKA CASE STUDY: ROSEDALE-RIO BRAVO WATER STORAGE DISTRICT

Olsson, a nationally-recognized engineering and design firm based in Nebraska, was already providing their Groundwater Evaluation Toolbox (GET), which automates the analysis of aquifer levels using web-based groundwater models powered by MODFLOW, to Rosedale and EDF. The GET platform puts water managers in the driver’s seat. It empowers them with an easy-to-use interface The Groundwater that keeps their groundwater models running as many hypothetical scenarios as Evaluation Toolbox (GET) desired. Water managers are able to use existing groundwater models to answer is a paradigm shift in the their water management questions in real-time. way groundwater models are used to manage water. A valuable feature of the platform is its incorporation of a satellite-based evapotranspiration model called OpenET. OpenET is a web platform being developed by NASA, EDF, and the Desert Research Institute that uses satellite-based data to calculate evapotranspiration – a key water metric that is particularly well- suited to tracking water use given Rosedale’s geography. This data gives landowners a past and present understanding of water demands on their specific land parcels.

ET data at the field scale is accessible across the western United States from the OpenET web interface. The OpenET platform can be tailored to incorporate While Sitka was tasked with building out the online platform, the Olsson, Sitka, additional water use data and EDF teams saw the synergy between the accounting platform and GET. Sitka based on data availability and Olsson staff worked closely from the start to demonstrate the types of analysis and regional needs. scenarios to be developed by integrating the Water Accounting Platform with GET.

An important aspect of water trading is avoiding unintended third-party impacts. When water use is moved from its original location to a new location, stress on the aquifer will be lessened at the original location, but it will also be increased in the new location. While a few water trades in a single year may be harmless, the cumulative impacts of many water trades over many years can negatively impact other water users by lowering water levels significantly in some areas. The only way to predict and track the impact of water trades is through simulation of the trades in a groundwater model. With GET, Rosedale is able to leverage their groundwater model efficiently and effectively and monitor potential water trades in real time. SITKA CASE STUDY: ROSEDALE-RIO BRAVO WATER STORAGE DISTRICT

Watch a live demo of the Water Accounting and Trading platform components at sitkatech.com/WATP.

GET makes it possible to use groundwater models to answer water management questions in real time.

THE RESULTS

The Water Accounting Platform allows landowners and water district staff to Landowners can: track their annual water allocations and current water usage in near real time. • View and manage their water budget Rosedale launched the accounting section of the open-source platform in March • Track water use over time 2020 and will launch the trading section when needed. When implemented, the • Post offers to buy and sell water trading portion of the platform will enable landowners to buy and sell allocation • Track market metrics of water supplies via a web-based marketplace. Water Managers can: • Account for customers’ water usage • Monitor and report groundwater use • Evaluate the hydrological impacts of groundwater pumping • Facilitate the transfer of allocations at the request of landowners

The Water Accounting Platform consists of several inter-connected components to ensure landowners and water district staff have the information needed. SITKA CASE STUDY: ROSEDALE-RIO BRAVO WATER STORAGE DISTRICT

Water Budget By combining water supply and usage data, landowners can now easily access and view the status of their yearly water budget and outstanding balance online.

The Manager Dashboard shares district-wide statistics and account usage detail by year.

Water Supply

Landowners can easily access detailed water budget information that is updated LEARN MORE in near real-time when Rosedale water managers input water supply data into the platform.

Water Trading To access the latest This optional section of the platform enables landowners to buy and sell information about allocations of water supplies within the platform. Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Accounting Modeling Scenarios and Trading Platform, Thanks to GET, the platform lets users better understand the potential impacts check out the StoryMap and benefits of different water management strategies, such as water trading or produced by our recharge activities, prior to taking action. Like Water Trading, this is an optional colleagues at EDF. add-on feature.

GET STARTED For organizations interested in learning more about the Water Accounting and Trading platform, please contact us at 1.800.805.6740 or [email protected] For more information, please visit: www.sitkatech.com/groundwater

Sitka Technology Group • 1.800.805.6740 • [email protected] • www.sitkatech.com • @sitkatech Sitka Technology Group is the leading provider of enterprise-level software solutions to streamline and power the acquisition, management, and visualization of field data for environmental conservation efforts. Copyright © 2020 Sitka Technology Group. Sitka and the Sitka logo are registered trademarks of Sitka Technology Group. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.