Making a graph of stupidity and UC grant whoring

 “We can’t manage what we don’t measure,” he said. “We’ve been putting a lot of efforts in developing intelligent infrastructure that will develop better information and lead to better decision-making.”

 
What is wrong with this statement?
1) It is historically absurd. Human beings have managed quite well without  "intelligent infrastructure."  But, of course, UC professors believe that real management of human affairs begins with measurements precise enough to build, launch and trigger the nuclear weapons for which UC is so famous.
2) You can measure water, store, transport,  wheel and otherwise use the very latest technologies and managment of water management and you still can't make enough water to supply uncontrolled growth in agriculture and population.
3) "Intelligent infrastructure" is contemptible UC-technological jargon. If we are going to "measure" the achievement of wonder-working new neighbor, UC Merced, in the category of "intelligent infrastructure," we're going to have to have a definition of the term that allows quantification.
4) A start might be made by measuring -- by addition and multiplication -- the water and sewer service the City of Merced has provided UC Merced, which is outside the city limits and not interested in being annexed. Perhaps Drs. Viers and Grantham could also quantify the costs of the social, economic and environmental impacts UC Merced has had on its surrounding region.
5) As the good professors' hypothesis makes clear, the State Water Project has managed just fine without any fancy measurement for "intelligent infrastructure." In fact, you might say that the lack of measurement has been one of the SWP's most important measurement tools and highest political achievement.
We also include the comments of Hound Dog, a Merced County blogger, on this article. -- blj
 

No s**t there Joshua! You could have gone to the Chronicles of the Hydraulic Brotherhood website, http://www.lloydgcarter.com/,  before you ever started your research and read all about this seven years ago Joshua. But of course nothing is ever official until the University Of California researches it, does an in-depth study of what every cleaning lady to the rich and famous already knows which is water flows uphill to money, always has, always will.
As for the second claim that we can’t manage what we don’t measure, Joshua I would bet that your fearless Richard C Blum that served as chairman of the Board of the University of California till May of 2009 has already realized this and is already personally poised to benefit financially from this water situation.
But keep up the good work Joshua we need good little research monkeys to legitimize the fairy tale that we can keep expanding agriculture and populations in a f**k**g desert forever under the guise of progress if we just continue believing in the religion of technology. --Hound Dog

8-19-14
Merced Sun-Star

California allocates more water than available for use, according to new UC study
BY ANA B. IBARRA
California is deficit-spending its water and has been doing so for a century, according to new research from the University of California.
Joshua Viers, UC Merced professor of water resources, teamed with Ted Grantham, a UC Davis postdoctoral researcher at the time, to look into the state’s database of water-rights allocation dating back to 1914.
The researchers found that distribution exceeded water supply by five times the average annual runoff and 100 times the actual surface-water supply for some river basins.
The state has about 70 million acre-feet of surface water available for use in a good year, but water rights issued since 1914 allocate a total of 370 million acre-feet, researchers reported. An acre-foot is the amount of water it would take to cover one acre to a depth of 1 foot.
Viers and Grantham’s study “100 years of California’s Water Rights System: Patterns, Trends and Uncertainty” was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters on Tuesday. The research analyzed public data from the State Water Resources Control Board, which administers water rights.
According to Viers, the water-rights allocation system is complicated and backlogged, which contributes to the problem. “It’s a broken system, from a policy perspective,” he said. “What’s on the books shows an overwhelming disparity between resource availability and appropriation.”
Another factor is that with California’s Mediterranean climate means it’s almost impossible to be certain how much water will be available in any given year. Considering California is in a drought year, researchers are advocating that policies and procedures be updated.
“The good news is that the state is actively working to improve water-use reporting,” Grantham said. “And given the public’s current attention on drought and California water, we now have an unprecedented opportunity for reforming the water-rights system.”
Viers and Grantham are working with the state on sorting out some of the issues in its database to get more information and make it available to policymakers.
Supported by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the National Science Foundation, UC Merced professor Roger Bales and colleagues developed a sensor network that could be turned into a unified, statewide water-information system. However, Bales estimates such a system would cost about $100 million.
UC Merced researchers have also developed programs that could help meet the demands for adequate water supplies, Viers said. “UC Merced has positioned itself to become a real leader in water resources.”
“We can’t manage what we don’t measure,” he said. “We’ve been putting a lot of efforts in developing intelligent infrastructure that will develop better information and lead to better decision-making.”