2024 Methods for Domestic Wells and State Smalls Water Shortage Vulnerability Assessment

This document presents the technical methods used to construct the 2024 update of the Water Shortage Vulnerability scoring for rural communities, including the indicators, datasets, methods used, and a statistical summary of results. This is an update to the scoring and tool that the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) developed in collaboration with the County Drought Advisory Group (CDAG) and submitted to the Legislature in April 2021 (DWR 2021). This document presents the second update (third scoring) to the construction of the indicators and scoring for the state small water systems, rural communities, domestic wells and other self-supplied residents, per California Water Code Section 10609.80(a)(2)(B-C). Data used in the 2024 update and tool are updated as of the preparation of this analysis in November 2024. Data and methods published December 15, 2024. Associated datasets are available at https://data.cnra.ca.gov/dataset/i07-water-shortage-vulnerability-sections for Physical Vulnerability and at https://data.cnra.ca.gov/dataset/i07-water-shortage-social-vulnerability-blockgroup for Social Vulnerability. To view and explore data in a public dashboard, see https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/ae1b4e3e41004f07b4901a7a3fa50637/ To learn more about this effort, refer to the Department of Water Resources website at: https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Water-Use-And-Efficiency/SB-552