The California Drought

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The California Drought and its Effects
California is now in the fourth year of a record breaking drought. Although there are certain measures being made to mitigate the problem, the California drought is greatly affecting certain industries, such as agriculture and water utilities. Anyone living in California already has an idea of what is going on because anywhere you go, there are signs telling people to regulate water use. Some cities even passed new laws prohibiting citizens from using a certain amount of water. People know that water is scarce but do they really know how this is affecting us and how it will affect us in the future?

First, the extent of the drought in the state was examined. The classification chart of the different kinds …show more content…
California generates more income from farms than any other state, with 73% of its agricultural revenue being crops. According to agclassroom.org,, California produces nearly half of the nation’s fruit, nuts, and vegetables. Many of California’s products are not even planted anywhere else in the country-- the reason for this being that California’s weather, soil, and topography make it the perfect place to plant a wide variety of crops. The climate is usually very moderate, and because historically the valley once flooded annually, the soil is still very fertile. In the past four years, however, there has definitely been a drastic change in California farming because of the lack of water, which is examined in the maps of the Fruit & Nut crop production levels.

This first map depicts the amount of fruit and nut crops produced in 2010, which is the time period immediately preceding the drought. The fruits and nuts category was chosen because it has an abundance of data, and it is what California is mostly known for, when it comes to agriculture. The state is divided into all 58 counties and there is a range of colors depending on how much that county produced. This map shows that most of the production takes place in Central California, with the northernmost part of California not producing as …show more content…
Groundwater is not an unlimited resource, or one whose use goes without consequence. Besides lowered availability, there are also other issues that arise from overuse of groundwater-- namely, land subsidence. Land-subsidence, which has affected over 17,000 square miles of the United States, is a major effect of human use of ground resources. It is a subject of great concern for geologists and geotechnical engineers, because it affects the lay of the land and can destroy foundations and affect structures. When groundwater (or any other fluid, such as natural gas) is extracted from the ground, the fluid pressure supporting the soil layers above the extraction point will drop, causing significant increases in soil pressures, and disturbances at the ground
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