The Delta Initiative is a multi-year research and planning effort at the University of California - Berkeley dealing with the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region of California.  The fate of the Delta is crucial to California's future -- it is the hub of the state's water supply system, is irreplaceable habitat for migrating birds and fish, and is the route through which critical infrastructure powers the Bay Area's dynamic economy.  The Delta is also home to more than half a million people and a large agriculture industry, and is facing dramatic urbanization pressure from the Bay Area, Central Valley and Sacramento housing markets.

The Delta is also at extraordinary risk of disaster.  Much of the land in the region has subsided below sea level, and is protected only by an aging system of levees.  River floods, earthquakes, and climate change all pose grave threats to the levees, the land, and the state's freshwater supply.  A mass failure of the levee system (similar to that which struck New Orleans) could have immense consequences for the economy of the entire state, and even the nation.

The Delta Initiative seeks to understand these pressures and risks, and to explore alternative futures for the Delta that would improve public safety, secure water supply and infrastructure systems, reduce state taxpayer liability, and provide habitat, open-space and recreation benefits. 

Contact Us

Initiative Director

William Eisenstein
delta@berkeley.edu
 

Steering Committee Co-Chairs

Matt Kondolf
Professor of Environmental Planning
UC-Berkeley
kondolf@berkeley.edu

John Cain
Director of Restoration Programs
Natural Heritage Institute
jcain@n-h-i.org
 

Steering Committee

Roster forthcoming

The Great Delta Charrette: A Report to the California Department of Water Resources.  Summarizes the Delta Initiative's October 2006 planning charrette to envision a sustainable Delta 50 years in the future.

ReEnvisioning the Delta: Alternative Futures for the Heart of California.  Assesses the threats that uncontrolled urbanization poses for the Delta, and proposes alternative models for securing the Delta over the long term.
 

Recent News Related to the Delta Initiative

Historic floodplain bills:  On October 10, 2007, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a landmark package of five bills that will greatly improve floodplain planning throughout California, especially in the Delta.  Hailed as the biggest political breakthrough in flood management in California in 40 years, the bills will:

• Mandate creation of a Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (for the first time in state history) by 2012;

• Require local land use plans to conform to the Flood Protection Plan;

• Ensure that local governments will bear some liability for levee failures if they approve non-conforming developments;

• Establish a 200-year flood protection standard for all new developments in floodplains;

• Require the state to create new maps of the 200-year floodplain by 2008; and

• Reconstitute and rename the State Reclamation Board.

The Delta Initiative's report "ReEnvisioning the Delta" (see above) was a touchstone in this debate, widely distributed and read in the State Capitol throughout the spring and summer while this landmark legislative action was being formulated.  On March 15, 2007, the Delta Initiative conducted a press conference (see press release, prepared remarks and coverage), and testified on the dangers of floodplain development in the Delta (among other topics) to a Joint Committee Hearing of four Senate and Assembly committees.

Delta Vision Stakeholder Coordination Group work hailed: The Delta Vision Stakeholder Coordination Group report, co-authored by the UC-Berkeley Delta Initiative, was effusively praised upon its delivery to the Blue Ribbon Task Force in late August, 2007.  Task Force members variously described the work as "stunning," "remarkable" and "brilliant," and strongly praised the stakeholders, staff and consultants for producing the report in under six months.

The report centered on two alternative visions (see below) for the future of the Delta, facilitated by the Delta Initiative in association with the Center for Collaborative Policy at Cal State - Sacramento (CCP).  The articulation of these visions, and achievement of consensus among the stakeholders on certain policy recommendations in the report, were viewed as major breakthroughs in California water policy.  The visions emerged from a charrette-like workshop conducted by the Delta Initiative and CCP in Courtland, California in June, and subsequent revisions.

• Vision 1: "Resilient Adaptive Delta" map and key
• Vision 2: "Flexible Delta" map and key

Current Activities with the Delta Vision Process (2007)

The Delta Initiative is currently assisting the State of California's Delta Vision Process, charged by Gov. Schwarzenegger with defining "a durable vision for sustainable management" of the Delta.  Unlike previous Delta planning processes, Delta Vision seeks to integrate all issues affecting both the land and the water of the Delta, including land use, infrastructure, recreation and tourism, emergency management, and state and local economics, in addition to the more "traditional" concerns of environment, water supply and quality, and flood risk management.

The Delta Initiative has played a key role in supporting both the Stakeholder Coordination Group (see above) and the Blue Ribbon Task Force as they grapple with these complex issues and integrate them into coherent visions. The Delta Initiative will continue to play an active role in the Delta Vision Process until at least the end of 2007.
 

Other Projects in Development (2007)

Groundwater Recharge and Flood Control in the Central Valley: In collaboration with the University of the Pacific and the Natural Heritage Institute, the Delta Initiative is developing a major research project to examine the technical, economic and political feasibility of large-scale groundwater recharge in the San Joaquin Valley and Tulare Basin.  Such recharge is a key element in the long-term sustainability of the Delta, since it would both reduce wet-season flood pressures and dry-season demand for water from the Delta.  This concept is well developed in a paper authored by Tom Zuckerman of the Central Delta Water Agency, presented to the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force.

Cumulative Effects of Urban Development in the Delta: Faculty and staff associated with the Delta Initiative are currently scoping a study to quantify the cumulative effects of urbanization on the Delta, to be conducted in 2008. 

Past Projects

The Great Delta Charrette (October 2006)
This event, held at the Yolo Wildlife Area in October 2006, assembled 21 key stakeholders and technical experts to envision a sustainable Delta 50 years in the future.

• Summary report
• Additional materials used in the charrette

ReEnvisioning the Delta Symposium (March 2006)
The kickoff event of the initiative, this symposium explored future implications of ongoing urbanization of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region and alternative futures for the region.

• Description
• Program(.pdf)
• Speaker Biographies
• Participating Agencies
• Sponsors
• Organizing Committee

Thomas Church Memorial Design Competition (March 2006)
This annual design competition hosted by the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning paralleled the Symposium with its 2006 program.  Contestants were instructed to re-imagine the California Delta region as a park with local, regional and national appeal.

• Winning Entries: Wet Feet Wanted and Delta Byways
• Program and Jury
• "Fresh ideas in the Delta" Sacramento Bee, March 19 2006

Related Classes at UC-Berkeley

• Citizen Participation in the Community Design Process LA242

This class facilitated the October 2006 charrette to envision sustainable land use, infrastructure and levee modification patterns for the Delta 50 years in the future.
 
• Advanced Project Design LA204: Water's Edge: Looking Ahead in the California Delta

In the Spring 2006 semester, students reconsidered the boundary between land and water as a means to examine possible futures for the California Delta. They began by analyzing the existing conditions, then developing strategies for individual sites around the region, and finally they examined ways in which those strategies might have implications at a larger scale.
 
• Environmental Planning Studio LA 205: Central Valley Agricultural Conservation

In the Spring 2006 semester, students developed strategies to select parcels for Agricultural Conservation Easements in order to maximize public benefits.Studio project report and presentation posters

Maps

Research and cartography by Delta Initiative

• Current and planned development in the Delta (.pdf)
• Current elevation in the Delta (.pdf)

Cartography by Delta Initiative

• 100-year floodplain
• Electricity infrastructure
• Elevation (alternate data to above)
• Island inundations (historical)
• Median household income
• Minority percentage
• Natural gas fields and lines
• Project levees
• Recreation and tourism
• Riparian vegetation
• Subsidence (to 2050)

Media Coverage

Opinion pieces 

• "UC group urges freeze on Delta development," Contra Costa Times, March 15, 2007

• "Other view: Breach the levees and save the day" (.pdf) Sacramento Bee April 2006

• "What's California delta's future - Central Park or the Ninth Ward?" (.pdf) San Francisco Chronicle April 2006

• Lessons from Gulf Hurricanes: Levee disaster could happen here -- Look to the delta San Francisco Chronicle Sept. 2005

• "The future of the California Delta: the Ninth Ward or Central Park?", KQED Perspective March 2006 Audio Text(.pdf)

• "Firing the Reclamation Board", KQED Perspective Oct 2005 Audio Text (.pdf)

News

• "Fresh ideas in the Delta", Sacramento Bee March 19 2006
• "Fragile levees imperil Delta", The Record March 17 2006
• "Governor ousts flood board: Some say the panel's recent move to review new urban development behind levees prompted the change", Sacramento Bee September 2005

Related Books, Reports and Testimony

• Delta Primer: A field guide to the California Delta, by Jane Wolff, author
• Subsided island restoration design in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: A solution for levee fragility and water supply vulnerability in the Delta (.pdf), Natural Heritage Institute (NHI) report 
• Figures(.pdf)
• Appendices(.pdf)
• Presentation(.pdf)
• An environmentally optimal alternative (.pdf), NHI report
• A five point plan for the Delta: A no regrets action plan (.pdf), NHI presentation
• NHI Testimony presented by John Cain before Senator Machado and Senate Committees(.pdf)

Images

• Aerial images of Delta