Report prepared by the Delta Stewardship Council, Delta Protection Commission, and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) is essential to California’s water, agricultural, ecological, and cultural systems. It supplies a portion of the water used by more than 27 million Californians, supports a $4.6 billion agricultural economy, and sustains habitat for more than 750 plant and animal species. Yet it is also one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the state, facing higher relative sea level rise than the San Francisco Bay Area due to land subsidence and its position at the confluence of California’s two largest rivers.
Recognizing that California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment does not include a synthesis focused solely on the Delta (three Climate Assessment regions span this area: Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area), the Delta Stewardship Council, in partnership with the Delta Protection Commission, and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy (Delta Conservancy), developed this State Agency-led report to fill that gap. It compiles the best available data on climate change in the Delta, including relevant findings from other Fifth Climate Change Assessment reports, summarizes the Delta agencies’ and the Delta Independent Science Board’s regional adaptation planning work, and identifies major investment needs to ensure the region’s long-term resilience. The report also reflects the Delta agencies’ commitment to ensuring that adaptation planning meaningfully involves and represents marginalized and historically excluded communities.
This summary is intended to inform federal and State partners, Tribes, local governments, researchers, and communities as we collectively work to create a climate-resilient future for the Delta. As the centerpiece of California’s water system and a region of immense ecological, cultural, and economic importance, the Delta’s resilience is inseparable from that of the state itself.
