This week's unprecedented, science-based report recommending a peripheral canal as the best solution to the California Delta's ecological and economical problems was written by a multidisciplinary team from UC Davis and the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).

The authors were Jay Lund, William Fleenor, William Bennett, Richard Howitt, Jeffrey Mount and Peter Moyle of UC Davis and Ellen Hanak, PPIC associate director and senior fellow.

Here are descriptions of, and contact information for, the Delta report authors. Color, high-resolution photos of authors are available from Sylvia Wright, swright@ucdavis.edu.

For more information about the new Delta report ("Comparing Futures of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta"), as well as the 2007 related report ("Envisioning Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta"), see:

• Delta report of July 17, 2008: http://www.ppic.org
• UC Davis news release of Feb. 7, 2007: "Deteriorating and Deadlocked, California's Delta Is a Disaster in Waiting" http://www-news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=8034

WATER SUPPLY AND DEMAND MANAGEMENT -- UC Davis professor Jay Lund specializes in the management of water and environmental systems, from California's large statewide system to local city and regional water systems. His research has included system optimization studies for California, the Columbia River, the Missouri River and several other systems -- as well as studies of climate change adaptation, water marketing, water conservation, water utility planning, and reservoir operations. He and his colleagues have developed computer models of how California's water system can adapt to changes in climate, infrastructure, water policies and droughts. Using one of those models, Lund said in 2003 that the landmark dam at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is expendable. He served on the advisory committees for the 1998 and 2005 California Water Plan updates, is a former editor of the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, and has authored or co-authored over 200 publications. Lund is the Ray B. Krone Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and an associate director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis. Contact: Jay Lund, Civil and Environmental Engineering, (530) 752-5671, jrlund@ucdavis.edu, http://cee.engr.ucdavis.edu/faculty/lund/.

WATERSHEDS, RIVERS AND STREAMS -- UC Davis geology professor Jeffrey Mount specializes in the rivers of California and land-use impacts on watersheds, rivers and streams. His research and teaching interests include the conservation and restoration of large river systems; natural function of rainfall and snowfall in watersheds and floodplains; levee safety and floodplain management. He holds the Roy Shlemon Chair in Applied Geosciences at UC Davis, is the director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, and chairs the CALFED Independent Science Board. He is author of California Rivers and Streams: The Conflict between Fluvial Process and Land Use (1995). Contact: Jeffrey Mount, Geology, (530) 752-7092, jfmount@ucdavis.edu.

FRESHWATER AND ANADRAMOUS FISH -- Peter Moyle is a professor of fish biology at UC Davis and the foremost expert on native freshwater and anadromous fishes (such as salmon) of California. He can discuss their declines and the environmental impacts that are responsible, such as droughts, water diversions and alien species. Moyle has worked on fish and ecological issues in the San Francisco Estuary, the San Joaquin River and the Sierra Nevada since the 1970s. He was head of the Delta 145 Native Fishes Recovery Team and a member of the Science Board for the CALFED Ecosystem Restoration Program. He has authored or coauthored more than 160 scientific papers and five books, including Inland Fishes of California (2002). He is an associate director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. Contact: Peter Moyle, Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, (530) 752-6355, pbmoyle@ucdavis.edu.

FISH ECOLOGY -- William Bennett is a professional researcher in fish ecology with the John Muir Institute of the Environment at UC Davis. His research has focused primarily on understanding the population dynamics of fishes in the San Francisco Estuary and near-shore marine (salt-water) environments in California. He has worked extensively with the Interagency Ecological Program and the CALFED Bay-Delta program to investigate the delta smelt and striped-bass populations in the San Francisco Estuary. His work with the Pacific Estuarine Ecosystem Indicator Research Consortium has focused on tidal-marsh goby populations. He has also studied the relative influences of fishing intensity and climate change on the near-shore rockfish fishery. Contact: Bill Bennett, John Muir Institute of the Environment, (530) 754-9354, wabennett@ucdavis.edu.

WATER QUALITY -- William Fleenor is a professional research engineer in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at UC Davis. Fleenor uses field data collection and computer models to examine how physical properties of water influence water quality. From the water temperature of reservoir releases to water chemistry in stratified water systems, hydrodynamics play a large part in the resulting water quality. Fleenor develops models to examine hydrodynamic influences in lakes, reservoirs and estuaries. He has been involved with numerous hydrodynamic and water-quality research projects in the Delta and is currently the project manager for two water-quality modeling efforts funded by the CALFED Bay-Delta program. Contact: William Fleenor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, (530) 752-5669, wefleenor@ucdavis.edu.

WATER ECONOMICS AND MARKETS -- Richard Howitt is a professor and department chair of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Davis. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in resource economics, economic theory and operations research. His current research interests include constructing disaggregated economic modeling methods based on maximum entropy estimators, testing the allocation of water resources by market mechanisms, and developing empirical dynamic stochastic methods to analyze changes in investments and institutions. He serves on advisory boards for the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Academy of Sciences. Contact: Richard Howitt, Agricultural and Resource Economics, (530) 752-1521, howitt@primal.ucdavis.edu.

CALIFORNIA WATER POLICY -- Ellen Hanak is a senior fellow and associate director of research at the Public Policy Institute of California. She is an expert on the economics of natural-resource management and agricultural development. At PPIC, she has launched a research program on water policy and has published reports and articles on water marketing, water and land-use planning, water conservation and management of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Other areas of expertise include infrastructure finance and climate change. Before joining PPIC in 2001, she held positions with the French agricultural research system, the President's Council of Economic Advisers and the World Bank. The PPIC is a private, nonprofit independent research group focused on the forces shaping California's future. Contact: Linda Strean, PPIC Media Affairs, (415) 291-4412, mobile (415) 867-9159, strean@ppic.org.