Social Benefits and Equity

Expected annualized damage for flood risk. The projected cost of repair and replacement can be modeled for different flooding scenarios.

Proportion of floodplain that is protected from development that is incompatible with flooding. Conserving and restoring floodplains can have profound effects on the risk and effects of flooding.

California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool ("CalEnviroScreen") is intended to support assessments of the potential environmental pollution effects on communities, including disadvantaged communities, in order to support reduction in disparities and threats to health. The groundwater component of CalEnviroScreen provides a relative ranking of communities' groundwater condition and so should not be considered an absolute indication of health risk or cumulative effects.

Cumulative hydrostatic force on levees and other flood-control structures. This is a measure of the calculated force that rivers in flood put on segments of levee, which can highlight areas vulnerable to failure under certain flood conditions.

Job-equivalents per unit of water transferred from a source region (e.g., agricultural labor force). When water is transferred among regions, source regions may lose economic benefits from the “lost” water.

Building standard and cost of maintaining levees/assessed value of the land use they protect. This ratio of benefit to cost helps us understand levees are the most important in a system.

Mercury in fish below concentrations harmful to people eating traditional or subsistence amounts of fish and animals that rely fish.

Mercury in fish tissue is an important measure of water and sediment quality. for mercury to increase in concentration in fish tissue, it must be available in the environment (water and/or sediment) and methylated, usually by bacteria in hypoxic/anoxic conditions.

Number of people whose drinking water supply is potentially unhealthy. Whether or not water is unhealthy to drink will depend on the concentrations of specific contaminants as well as synergistic effects of multiple contaminants.

Public awareness and perceptions of the role water plays in their lives and in the environment can affect how people vote to support candidates, taxes/assessments, and bond issues. It is both important to keep the public informed to support democracy and to track their knowledge and perceptions in order to develop policies and management actions.