We will all need exceptional courage to help communities and their decision-makers plan for the deep uncertainty and surprising events resulting from climate change combined with the complexity of the system-of-systems approaches that make our holistic vision possible. We are not nearly prepared enough for the worst consequences resulting from this combination of uncertainty and complexity.

On 11 April 2013, I presented a lunchtime keynote at SAWPA’s annual Santa Ana River Watershed 2013 conference in Costa Mesa, CA. It reflected on Integrated Resources Planning in Southern California, my experiences, and where we may be headed. Here’s the transcript of that keynote.

My colleague Vladimir Novotny has done a good job condensing the several thousand years of water infrastructure history into four distinct stages – or paradigms as he calls them.