LOS ANGELES — A new report by the UCLA School of Law’s Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment recommends improvements the state can make in groundwater monitoring and regulation to help secure California’s water supply, according to a press release.

“Under Water: Monitoring and Regulating Groundwater in California” discusses the importance of groundwater and its management, as well as the advantages of realigning California’s water rights system, the release stated.

“To encourage efficient and responsible water use, California must better account for the benefits of water availability and the costs of overuse,” said the report’s author, M. Rhead Enion, UCLA’s Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy. “Surface water and groundwater are connected — increased use of one affects supply of the other — and an overuse of groundwater can negatively affect surface water supply. Without comprehensive monitoring of groundwater use and quality throughout the state, programs to encourage water efficiency and conservation are undermined.”

To read the full press release, click here.