Robust Decision Support: how SEI helps California regions plan for sustainable water management

This fact sheet describes how the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) uses a Robust Decision Support (RDS) process to help California regions develop sustainable water management plans, specifically focusing on the Yuba River Basin and Yolo County.

• SEI employs a Robust Decision Support (RDS) process, based on RAND Corporation concepts, to create a "shared mental model" among stakeholders with conflicting interests to identify opportunities and trade-offs for water management.
• In the Yuba River Basin from 2013 to 2015, SEI used the XLRM framework—comprising Exogenous uncertainties, Levers, Analytical tools (Relate), and Performance metrics—and the Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) system to model the basin.
• Analysis of the Yuba River Basin indicated that the system is highly vulnerable to climate change and potential environmental regulations regarding water releases to the Delta. Furthermore, the study found that individual strategies, such as urban conservation projects, were insufficient to reduce regional vulnerabilities because the non-agricultural sector uses a very small proportion of total water; therefore, a portfolio of multiple strategies is required.
• In Yolo County, SEI supported the development of a groundwater sustainability plan (GSP) required by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Using a WEAP model, SEI defined sustainability through three dimensions: water reliability, financial viability, and groundwater levels, while testing various management rules against uncertainty scenarios involving land use change, climate, and new regulations.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2019). Robust Decision Support: how SEI helps California regions plan for sustainable water management. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/robust-decision-support-how-sei-helps-california-regions-plan.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Robust Decision Support: how SEI helps California regions plan for sustainable water management. 2019. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/robust-decision-support-how-sei-helps-california-regions-plan.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Robust Decision Support: how SEI helps California regions plan for sustainable water management |date=May 2019 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/robust-decision-support-how-sei-helps-california-regions-plan.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2019robust, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Robust Decision Support: how SEI helps California regions plan for sustainable water management}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2019}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/robust-decision-support-how-sei-helps-california-regions-plan.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }