On March 3, 2015, The California Landscape Conservation Cooperative conducted a scenario planning workshop as a part of the Central Valley Landscape Conservation Project (CVLCP). The goal of this scenario planning exercise was to develop a common understanding of a range of future conditions in the Central Valley as a basis for identifying priority natural resources and adaptation strategies and actions.
Workshop participants worked in small groups to develop two major axes of landscapeMscale change in the Central Valley that would then be used to develop four plausible future scenarios for the Central Valley. All groups agreed on a water-related axis, and there were two distinct versions of a human-driven axis. CA LCC staff synthesized these into one axis to create four divergent futures.
The axes and their two extremes are described below, followed by a summary of the four scenarios. These future scenarios will be used by the project teams to envision possible changes for the Central Valley region’s future and guide the selection of priority resources and the development of data products, quantitative vulnerability analyses, and climate adaptation strategies.
For in-depth documentation of the workshop and scenario planning methodology, please see the Workshop Summary on the CVLCP project website.
