Urban Water Management Plans

The California Urban Water Management Planning Act (Act) requires every urban water supplier providing water for municipal purposes to more than 3,000 customers, or supplying more than 3,000 acre-feet of water annually, to complete and Urban Water Management Plan and update every 5 years.

The UWMP integrates local and regional land-use planning, regional water supply, infrastructure, and demand management projects, as well as statewide issues of concern like climate change and regulatory revisions.

UWMPs are thus intended as short-term and long-term water supply documents that are based on land-use projections, and account for in-fill developments and for specific plans. UWMP should thus address these water-planning goals:

• Preparing an analysis of current and future water use, including assessing available baseline data and reviewing long-term planning.
  
  
• Analyzing potable and non-potable water supplies, including reviewing water rights and contracts, assessing water deliveries, ascertaining constraints on water availability under regulatory and hydrological conditions.
  
  
• Analyzing water supply reliability and provide a water service reliability under normal conditions, single dry year conditions, and five consecutive dry years through 2045.

Preparing a realistic Drought Risk Assessment by including integrated water supplies and projected water use in a hypothetical five-year drought condition

• Developing an effective Water Shortage Contingency Plan that specifies opportunities to reduce demand and augment supplies under unpredictable water shortage conditions.