All about water budgets

A water budget is an accounting of the rates of the inflows, outflows, and changes in water storage in a specific area; they are important to understanding the movement of water into, within, and out of a watershed. Water budgets also provide an understanding of historical conditions and how future changes to supply, demand, hydrology, population, land use, and climate may affect the water resources of the area.

Water budgets are a required element of Groundwater Sustainability Plans; however, water budgets are not intended to be a direct measure of groundwater sustainability but rather to provide GSAs with an understanding of the basin that will inform and help guide future projects and management actions in order to achieve sustainability for the basin.

Key publications

Water Budget BMPHandbook for Water BudgetsFrequently Asked Questions about the Handbook for Water Budget Development USGS: Water Budgets: Foundations for Effective Water-Resources and Environmental Management Regulations pertaining to water budgets

DWR: Water budget BMP

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BMP 4 Water Budget_ay_19

DWR: Draft Handbook for Water Budgets

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Water Budget Handbook

Frequently Asked Questions about the Handbook for Water Budget Development

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Water Budget Handbook FAQs_a

USGS: Water Budgets: Foundations for Effective Water-Resources and Environmental Management

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Regulations pertaining to water budgets

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GSP-Regs-Art-5-Plan-Contents-Sub-2-Basin-Setting-Water-Budget

Additional water budget resources

Additional online water budget resources

- - Water budget accounting templates and other useful information, additional resources to go with DWR’s Water Budget Handbook at the CNRA Open Data platform.
  - Storymap: Comprehensive Water Budget — A Story of Innovations for Water Accounting, from the Department of Water Resources
  - Water Budget Development for SGMA Compliance, Case Study: Ukiah Valley Groundwater Basin, from Maritza Flores Marquez, et al, Universities Council on Water Resources
  - Groundwater Law – Physical – “the water budget myth”, by Dr. Jay Lund at the UC Davis California Water Blog
  - Water budgets across the United States, webpage from the USGS
  - Modeling the Water Budget: Classroom activity from JPL
  - Water budget science in Texas, webpage from USGS

Introductory webinar: Handbook for Water Budget Development: With or Without Models

Webinar: Water Budget Handbook – An Interactive Public Webinar on Challenging Water Budget Topics

Articles on water budgets at Maven’s Notebook

Notebook water budget posts

WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: Developing a water budgetWith water availability being an important concern, water managers often use water budgets to quantify and manage water resources. A water budget is an accounting of the rates of the inflows, outflows, and changes in water storage in a specific area; however, as simple as that might sound, developing an accurate water budget can be a difficult and challenging endeavor. To address this problem, the Department of Water Resources has developed a water budget handbook, which is intended to demystify […]

Explore water budgets at the California Water Library

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