San Joaquin Valley community land use preferences

Agriculture dominates California’s San Joaquin Valley with over five
million acres in production, producing 400 different commodities ranging
from nuts, tree fruits, vines, and row crops. During dry years this
agricultural production uses about 53% of total applied water in the
state. Implementation of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act (SGMA) will restrict groundwater pumping, likely reducing agricultural
land use resulting in conversion to alternative land uses. This paper
examines public perceptions of future land uses under SGMA through a SMS
distributed web survey. Respondents (n=197) were recruited through a
stratified random sample of mobile numbers registered within communities
in the San Joaquin valley classified as DACs (n=32). Our results show that
most respondents were somewhat (33%) or not at all (54%) familiar with
SGMA, highlighting the need for outreach efforts to overcome barriers to
representation, translation, and education about future water and land use
decisions. Survey respondents identified secure water supplies (e.g.,
groundwater recharge) (35%) and less-water intensive agriculture (27%) as
their top land use priorities to address groundwater overdraft under SGMA,
indicating that the status quo for land use is preferred to alternative
land uses such as habitat restoration or recreation. We correlated
preference for maintaining agriculture as primary land use (27%) with
agricultural identity and lack of interest in community or global benefits
such as schools and climate change mitigation. The findings from this
study underscore the challenges to engaging local communities in land use
decision-making, especially as they relate to changing current practices
toward a more climate-resilient but agriculturally productive future with
less land and less water.