California Water Plan Update 2005 introduced a new analytical approach to evaluating future water management conditions: multiple future scenarios and alternative response packages. The scenarios are not meant to be forecasts of the future, but represent alternatively plausible conditions for the future. They are explained here. Response packages are comprised of different mixes of resource management strategies.

Scenarios are shaped by factors considered to be beyond the control of water managers. Each scenario has alternative values for some factors such as population growth and land use. Water Plan scenarios are used to explore questions about the future; for example, what will the year 2050 be like if California's population continues to grow at the rate it has over the past several years, and what if the rate increases over the next 10, 20, or more years? How will shifting land use influence future water demands for agriculture or municipalities?

Scenario - Current Trends
           Storyline (.pdf, 11 kb)

Scenario - Expansive Growth
          Storyline (.pdf, 11 kb)

Scenario - Blueprint Growth
          Storyline (.pdf, 11 kb)