Adapting to water scarcity in Los Angeles, California

By: Zach Heyman

Dr. Timon McPhearson
Urban Resilience
Spring 2015
May 14, 2015

Part I: Overview of the water crisis in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California is one of the most complex megacities in the world. With
a population of 3.9 million people (2013 U.S. Census) spread across 469 square miles,
and a metropolitan area nearly 10 times the size - the resilience challenges the city
faces are on a massive scale. Situated on the Pacific coast of Southern California,
surrounded by mountains and deserts, Los Angeles is one of the most ethnically and
culturally diverse cities in the world - with a huge concentration of creative capital and
progressive thinking (Arnold & Arnold 2013). Spread out over the vast Los Angeles
basin, the citys population is growing at a rate of 2.4% (2010-2013) and is largely
comprised of Hispanic or Latino groups, which now make up 48.5% of the population
and is continuing to increase (2010 U.S. Census). Los Angeles is arguably most famous
for being the home of Hollywood and the global nexus of the motion-picture industry,
which dominates the citys economy in addition to fashion, aerospace and service
jobs, tourism, and a fast-growing technology sector. After seeing unemployment rise at
13% after the 2007 economic crisis, unemployment rates have dropped to 8.7%,
signalling a steady improvement, but economic inequality still remains a problem for
the city (Newton 2014).
Situated in the California coastal sage/chaparral ecoregion, Los Angeles
experiences a Mediterranean climate, characteristic of the regions surrounding the
Mediterranean Sea. The city receives an average annual precipitation of 15.14 inches,
usually occurring from November through April in the form of moderate to severe
rainstorms, which often lead to intense flooding, creating huge amounts of surface
runoff that ends up in the Pacific Ocean, due to the lack of permeable surfaces in the
city. Water, which will be the focus of this paper, in Los Angeles has long been the
subject of public scrutiny and mismanagement. According to The L.A. County
Waterworks District, the citys water is sourced from three places: local groundwater
stored in aquifers and the greater Los Angeles Watershed, the Colorado River

Aqueduct (CRA) and water provided by the State Water Project (SWP). The SWP is a
complex system of dams, reservoirs and aqueducts spanning over 400 miles through
California from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Today, 88% of the citys is
imported, flowing from the Colorado River Aqueduct, San Joaquin Delta, as well as the
nearby Owens Valley, which lies a few hundred miles north of the city (LA Times 2014).
Owens Valley was the focus point of the California Water Wars, a fierce struggle over
the valleys rich water resources between its residents and the City of Los Angeles in
the late 1800s. As L.A. outgrew its water supply, an aqueduct was constructed to
supply the city with water that collected snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada mountains
and flowed into Owens Valley.
Wastewater in the area is managed by the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles
County (LACSD), and in LA city proper by LA Sanitation, who operates one of the
largest engineered wastewater recycling programs in the world. This program hopes to
reduce LAs reliance on outside water systems and promotes alternative sources of
water and conservation. According to LA Sanitation over 6,500 miles of sewers run
under the city, connecting to four wastewater and reclamation plants, which in total
process an average of 550 million gallons of wastewater each day. Additionally, some
of the treated wastewater is then used as recycled water and accumulated organic
solids are used in fertilizers and soil treatments. These steps taken by the citys
sanitation department to recycle the massive amounts of water being treated are in the
right direction, but much more needs to be done to improve the citys aging water
infrastructure and the way its residents perceive and consume water in the face of
climatic changes in the region.
Another major environmental issue plaguing Los Angeles is air quality. Long
known for having the worst smog in the nation, gridlocked traffic jams and an
omnipresent haze blurring the city skyline, a 2014 study by the American Lung
Association once again showed that LA still has the highest concentrations of ozone
and fine particle pollution of any American city, despite major improvements in air
quality over the past few decades (Barboza 2014). However, air pollution level do vary

across the city, especially in communities near the beaches where ocean winds, green
spaces and a less dense urban landscape allow for (relatively) better air quality.
Los Angeles, despite its sprawling urban landscape, is rich in natural lands and
endemic biota. Los Angeles is part of the
California Floristic Province
, one of the
worlds biodiversity hotspots (CEPF), which includes high levels of endemic plants and
several threatened endemic animals including the giant kangaroo rat, desert
salamander and California Condor and is home to the largest avian breeding ground in
the U.S (CEPF). Biodiversity is threatened by rapid urbanization, road construction and
pollution. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the dominant floral species of
the region are California sagebrush, chamise, brittlebush, California buckwheat and
numerous cacti and succulents, Torrey pines, Cypress and California Oak. Despite the
abundance of iconic palm trees, only the California fan palm, is native to the region
(Masters 2011). There are few endemic or near-endemic vertebrates found in the
ecoregion, but some of these species include white-eared pocket mouse, puma,
bobcats, coyote and the aforementioned California condor. Because of frequent
wildfires succession has led to many of these species adapting to the hot, dry
conditions of the southern California chaparral.
There is major habitat fragmentation throughout the southern California
chaparral. The major natural lands form a ring of mountains and foothills around the
Los Angeles basin. Historically, these mountains have received more conservation
attention, while the surrounding valleys and riverine areas have not. The two large
natural areas in the LA region, Angeles National Forest and Santa Monica Mountains
National Recreation Area, are federally protected lands, but constant human impact in
the rapidly developing area surrounding these parks still threatens the ecoregion. There
is a shift in thinking however in efforts to reclaim rivers as public green spaces,
restored habitat, as well as a potential local source of water (Longacre 2006).

As a uniquely diverse and highly influential global city, Los Angeles has the
potential to set the bar for climate-resilient cities with the way it has pivoted its views
on water consumption. The recent intense drought, now going on four years, has
begun to test the idyllic representation of the Southern California dream of seemingly
endless growth (Nagourney et al. 2015) and mandatory legislation ordering a statewide
reduction of non-agricultural water use by 25% will hopefully usher in a new era of
water-awareness and effective conservation measures.
In this paper I will address the citys water scarcity issue through the systems
perspective and propose solutions by identifying key elements of the Los Angeles
urban system that will control and influence the sustainability of water resources and
overall system resiliency in the face of drought. There is a prevailing discourse in the
field of urban ecology that is beginning to recognize cities as ecosystems, that is, the
interaction between biotic and physical complexes in a space bounded for research
(Cadenasso & Pickett 2008). Understanding the connections between different system
elements can help to better evaluate the effectiveness of a system as a whole and in
this case, understanding the subsystems and factors that drive the water system in Los
Angeles.
In this study, the system is bounded at the city limits within Los Angeles County,
California, although there are flows both into the system and out. The system I have
defined in the next section of this paper is driven by the impact of drought on water
resources in Los Angeles. I have identified three major complexes in the system:
Biophysical, Social and Built - all of which are deeply interconnected and influenced by
each other. These complexes are made up of sub-complexes that are essential to a
sustainable and resilient water system in Los Angeles. I have identified these
sub-complexes as: Government and Distribution, Sustainable Watershed Management,
Adaptive Design and Ecosystem Services - all of which are connected through many
sub-elements that contribute to the greater social, biophysical and built complexes of

the urban system. By taking the systems approach to addressing the water issue in
Los Angeles, my aim is to understand why the present water system is unsustainable
and identify action being taken by scientists, planners, designers, policymakers and
residents in Los Angeles to reduce reliance on imported water and adopt more
sustainable water management practices, which is the current decision-making
paradigm among these actors. In the last 30 years, the citys approach to water
management and delivery has changed significantly, placing emphasis on local water
resource development and collaborative decision-making (Hughes et al. 2013).
As I defined earlier, the city of Los Angeles receives its water from three
sources: water imported through the Colorado River Aqueduct (CRA), the State Water
Project (SWP) and local groundwater sources - all of which are distributed to the city
and its residents by the Metropolitan Water District (MWD). The SWP constructs and
manages a complex system of reservoirs, pump stations, storage facilities, pipes and
canals, which source the imported water from the California and Los Angeles
Aqueducts throughout the city. Despite efforts to develop local groundwater resources,
which I will explore further later in this paper, groundwater only accounts of 11% of the
citys water supply, only 1% of water is recycled - the remaining 88% of its water is
imported through the SWP and CRA, most of which is being sourced from rapidly
depleting, distant reserves such as the Colorado River and the nearly snow-less Sierra
Nevada Mountains (Phillips 2014). The distribution system of water inextricably links
the social, biophysical and built complexes of the system, and act as the primary
inflows and outflows of the urban system. However, this is unsustainable and the
feedback from this system prevents resilience in the face of water scarcity, as the
urban system cannot regulate itself if water is primarily sourced from an unreliable,
fragile system incredible distances away.
One of the major problems with developing local groundwater infrastructure in
Los Angeles is addressing the sprawling impervious surfaces, such as sidewalks, roads
and freeways, as well as the concrete conduit that is the Los Angeles River, that
prevents what rainfall does occur, from absorbing into the ground. Rather, most of the

stormwater that could otherwise be collected and stored for later use runs over these
paved surfaces, into the LA River and gets carried out to the Pacific Ocean (Phillips
2014). This a major concern for policymakers, planners and communities alike, as
mandatory water-use restrictions will surely influence peoples perceptions of the
drought and the need to take action in conserving water and developing rainwater
collection systems. These elements contribute to the overall system complexes and
understand these connections can be used in addressing potential solutions, which I
will outline below in the system map (Figure 1).
Part II: Systems Diagram and Solution Strategies

(Figure 1): Systems Diagram addressing the issue of water management and drought
resilience in Los Angeles, CA and current adaptive design projects and potential solutions..

There is a shift in public recognition of the urgency of proper water management

and the need to reduce the citys reliance on imported water. In addition to the
wastewater collection and reuse program I mentioned before, current and future
projects aim to develop public and private infrastructure to collect rain water, store
water in aquifers and make all collected water available for reuse. These projects
include residential collection systems, porous pavement and surfaces, a Los Angeles
River Revitalization Plan and the creation of the South Los Angeles Wetlands Park in a
former bus depot. The city consumes less water than it did in 1970, despite the
population growing from 2.8 million people to 3.9 million (Jacques 2014) and this
dedication to water conservation can be attributed to a combination of good design,
effective, informed governance and grassroots efforts. However, many people still see
Los Angeles as a ruthless water consumer and have yet to join the fight, despite some
the groundbreaking steps the city has made towards water sustainability resilience.
Good governance and proper management of water resources remains the
major obstacle in achieving a sustainable water supply, but city water administrators
now recognize the interconnections between natural and built environments and the
essential need for water, and have turned to adaptive design projects that foster
sustainable watershed management and support natural processes (Jacques 2014).
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti recently announced that the city has a goal of
reducing its imported water by 50% over the next 10 years, increasing local
groundwater development and promoting ecological resilience (Phillips 2014) .
One of the most important sub-complexes of the Los Angeles water system is
the importance of integrating natural processes and ecosystem services into the
design of sustainable watershed management projects - which are crucial components
of a resilient urban system. Proposed and developed projects to address the severe
drought in Los Angeles aim to treat polluted water, capture rainwater, store in aquifers
and recycle all of it, while supporting natural processes that increase productivity in the
biophysical system - ultimately leading to a decreased reliance on imported water and

reinforces the subsystems and elements that drive a localized, sustainable water
supply.
Public perception and usage of water in Los Angeles today is undoubtedly
driven by the policies put into effect regulating how much water can be used by
residents. The mandatory statewide water reduction goal of 25% has proposed cuts
based on current consumption rates, and vary greatly city-by-city, ranging from 8% to
36% reductions in residential water use. Los Angeles, has proposed cuts of 16% and
have reduced consumption by 5% from March 2013-March 2015 (Park et al. 2015).
Once people understand the dire need to reduce consumption and are included in the
decision-making process, then positive action can be taken through the form of
sustainable, adaptive design and watershed management.
One of the major ecological issues associated with drought in Los Angeles is
stormwater runoff and capture. At the end of 2014, rainstorms had dropped 5 inches of
rain in some parts of the city, and stormwater capture facilities collected 3.6 billion
gallons of stormwater countywide. These facilities would not only prevent polluted
stormwater from running out to the Pacific Ocean, but vast gravel-bottomed pits allow
water to soak back into local aquifers. However, that only accounts for 2% of the water
consumed within the city of Los Angeles each year (Phillips 2014). However, if action is
taken at the community level to redesign homes, neighborhoods and businesses to
collect stormwater and reuse it, much progress could be made.
A notable example of the action being taken to increase the groundwater supply
and decrease stormwater runoff and wasted water is a $2.7 million project undertaken
by the city in the Sun Valley section of Los Angeles - one of the most flood-prone
sections of the city. Through a vast public-private partnership involving the Council for
Watershed Health, a local non-profit and various local water governing agencies,
universities, residents and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Elmer Avenue in Sun Valley
was retrofitted into a water-friendly city block, allowing residents to capture rainwater
on their roofs and store it in barrels, while any runoff is collected in rain gardens,
sidewalk bioswales and absorbed back into the ground, creating a local aquifer.

Completed in 2010, It is estimated that in one year, the water collected would be
enough for 80 houses for personal consumption (Jacques 2014).
Another innovative solution to the water scarcity problem, a design strategy
which I believe to be incredibly vital to a balanced, resilient urban system, is the
creation the South Los Angeles Wetlands Park. A former bus depot and brownfield
site, the new 4.5 acre wetland lies within the nine-acre park, creating natural habitat for
native flora and fauna, access to nature for locals in a long marginalized neighborhood,
and treats and stores stormwater runoff to replenish the greater watershed - capable of
absorbing up to 680,000 gallons of water per day during an intense rainstorm (Fuentes
2012). The positive impacts that green water infrastructure design has on ecological
processes are undeniable, and in the case of Los Angeles, could be the solution to
water scarcity and reducing the citys reliance on imported water.
Unfortunately, many of the projects undertaken in Los Angeles to mitigate the
effects of drought and adapt to a changing landscape will start too late to impact the
drought currently plaguing the city - but they will surely address future ones and lay the
framework for an ecologically-resilient urban system. The systems approach is useful
in addressing this particular issue because water such a biological necessity,
understanding how to adapt to a water-scarce environment must be analyzed at all
levels. The water system affects the biophysical, social and built complexes of the city,
and is regulated by the numerous connections between these systems. Despite
Hollywood, the freeways, and endless sprawl of paved surfaces - Los Angeles is an
ecosystem. Both culturally and spatially heterogeneous, the citys diverse physical
makeup of surfaces, buildings and vegetation must be considered as such (Cadenasso
& Pickett 2008).
As a highly creative, influential global city, Los Angeles has the potential to lead
the way for ecologically-resilient cities through collaborative, adaptive design that
supports natural processes, builds resilient, informed communities, sustainable

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watershed management and increases water independence in the face of future

drought in the water-depleted Southwestern United States.

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