Data for Drought Resiliency

California is known for its susceptibility to drought. The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and Department of Water Resources (DWR) have collaborated to compile critical information such as water shortage outlooks, historical production and consumption datasets. While this data has been collected to predict and manage water supplies; historically it has been underutilized and poorly integrated into planning. To address this gap, the California Natural Resource Agency (CNRA) developed a water data portal that compiles and provides access to this data with the goal of helping water managers to assess their water supply and demand needs and vulnerabilities. This project aims to assess whether the historical and forecasted data is likely to be sufficient, useful, and accessible to better manage water resources. The team will perform data gap analyses and deliver recommendations from a data science perspective to enhance user experience. An automated workflow will be designed to assist water resource managers and the public in visualizing and performing statistics to analyze the data. The ultimate goal is to collaborate with the California Water Data Consortium to improve understanding and provide an easily accessible resource for research and analysis in drought prevention.