Mapping/Identifying 'Local' Water Usage

[ixley]

This is more of a stub than a full idea, but I was thinking that it would be really interesting to be able to map out and categorize water usage in the area. This obviously hinges on what kind of data is available, but it seemed like it could have some real relevance as California is in the middle of an historic drought.

Reference

http://projects-ca.statewater.org/water-rights (doesn't appear to be actively supported) ...

[daguar]

Holy %&*@! I was totally riding the same wavelength! https://github.com/daguar/ideas/issues/6 (Pun intended.)

I've found some rad data here: http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp/getResGraphsMain.action but I haven't had time to really dig into it.

There's also a neat group that's worked on modern tech tools related to CA water issues, called the "New California Water Atlas": http://ca.statewater.org/

A bit tangential, but they also mentioned they're working with the CA Public Utilities Commission on building a data site/API for current and historical water pricing data: https://twitter.com/CAWaterAtlas/status/429324120975630336

[ixley]

Yes! Again, I've barely done any poking around, but it's something that I'm personally interested in learning more about, and yeah – seems like if we were able to get relevant data sets, it could provide some great context to help people better understand California's water usage, and also ideally feed a sense of informed citizen empowerment. I stumbled onto that New California Water Atlas group, but wasn't clear how actively they were working on projects. Regardless, it feels like a charged and relevant area worth exploring more.

[daguar]

If you're interested, you should totally reach out to those folks. The two main people (AFAIK) are:

Laci https://twitter.com/videmsky Chacha (former CfA fellow!) https://twitter.com/chachasikes