We can better deal with drought with more data | The Sacramento Bee

"When Californians want to buy a car, data on fuel efficiency, safety, performance and virtually every factoid imaginable are just a quick online search away. However, California’s water managers have to do extensive research just to piece together the basic facts. By making California’s existing water data open, transparent and publicly accessible, we could significantly improve our drought resilience. The problem isn’t a lack of information so much as a lack of accessible, user-friendly data. That’s why Assembly Bill 1755 is so important. Scheduled to go before the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee on Tuesday, the legislation will leverage California’s technological might to integrate existing data on reservoirs, stream flows, fish populations, water rights, aquifer levels and more into a user-friendly and publicly accessible website. The bill would develop open data protocols and encourage public-private partnerships to bring together the best available technology ..."