Urban Water Management Plans

Urban Sprawl - Natomas Housing — Urban Water Management Plans are prepared by urban water suppliers every 5 years to support long-term resource planning and water supply sustainability.

Urban Water Management Plans (UWMPs) are prepared by urban water suppliers every five years. These plans support the suppliers’ long-term resource planning to ensure that adequate water supplies are available to meet existing and future water needs.

The requirements for UWMPs are found in two sections of California Water Code, §10610-10656 and §10608. Every urban water supplier that either provides over 3,000 acre-feet of water annually, or serves more than 3,000 urban connections is required to submit an UWMP.

Within UWMPs, urban water suppliers must:

Assess the reliability of water sources over a 20-year planning time frame
Describe demand management measures and water shortage contingency plans

Report progress toward meeting a targeted 20 percent reduction in per-capita (per-person) urban water consumption by the year 2020
Discuss the use and planned use of recycled water

The information collected from the submitted UWMPs is useful for local, regional, and statewide water planning.

DWR’s role

DWR provides guidance for urban water suppliers by preparing an UWMP Guidebook, conducting workshops, developing tools, and providing program staff to help water suppliers prepare comprehensive and useful water management plans, implement water conservation programs, and understand the requirements in the California Water Code that regulate Urban Water Management Planning.

DWR then reviews the submitted plans to make sure they have addressed the requirements identified in the Water Code and submits a report to the Legislature summarizing the status of the plans for each five-year cycle.

Urban water suppliers submit their UWMPs to DWR through the secure WUEdata portal. Access into this portal is restricted to water suppliers, their authorized representatives, and DWR. DWR’s webinar on how to submit UWMPs through the WUEdata portal is available on the UWMP playlist of the DWR YouTube site.

View the final version of the 2020 Guidebook by selecting the blue hyperlinks directly below.
- UWMP 2020 Guidebook - Final Version
- Appendix A - California Water Code - Urban Water Management Planning
- Appendix B - Changes to the California Water Code Since 2015 UWMP
- Appendix C - Example Approach to Demonstrate Reduced Delta Reliance
- Appendix D - Regional Water Planning and Reporting by Regional UWMP or Regional Alliance
- Appendix E - Submittal Data Tables and SB X7-7 Forms
- Appendix F - UWMP Checklist
- Appendix G - Glossary of Terms, Acronyms, and Abbreviations
- Appendix H - References
- Appendix I - Considering Climate Change Impacts
- Appendix J - Industrial Process Water Exclusion from Gross Water Calculations
- Appendix K - Estimating Future Water Savings from Adopted Codes, Standards, Ordinances, or Transportation and Land-Use Plans
- Appendix L - Water Loss Audit Regulations
- Appendix M - Recycled Water
- Appendix N - Case Study on Integrated Rate Design and Communication
- Appendix O - Energy Information Reporting
- Appendix P - Calculating Baselines and Targets
- To view the following tables, please visit the WUEdata Portal's Resources for Urban Water Suppliers:
  - Excel templates
  - List of the changes made to the 2020 UWMP Guidebook and Excel tables since updating their public draft version
  - UWMP Checklist in an Excel format
Stay Informed - To receive notifications and current information, request to join the UWMP listserv by sending an email to UWMPHelp@water.ca.gov.
Training - View the Training Tab for details about UWMP learning opportunities.
July 1, 2021 - Due date for urban water suppliers to submit their UWMPs to DWR.

View 2020 UWMP reference materials by selecting the blue hyperlinks directly below.

USC Weather Normalization Subcommittee Project Summary
Methodologies for Calculating Baseline and Compliance Urban Per Capita Water Use
Historic 2015 UWMP reference materials
2020 UWMP Excel templates (revised as of March 3, 2021)
List of changes made (on SharePoint)

Training Webinars. Between December 2020 and February 2021, DWR hosted a set of nine special topic training webinars. The training webinars are recorded and posted to the DWR YouTube page for public access. During the training webinars, we review planning tools, provide examples, and address participant questions. The following are focus topics from each webinar:

Training Module 1 - Demonstrating Reduced Delta Reliance (Appendix C)
Training Module 2 - Using the Optional Planning Tool for Drought Risk Assessment
Training Module 3 - Methods for Estimating Service Area Population
Training Module 4 - UWMP Energy Use Reporting Training
Training Module 5 - Calculating Compliance with Water Use Targets (SBX7-7)
Training Module 6 - Baselines and Targets for SBX7-7
Training Module 7 - Considering Climate Change
Training Module 8 - How to prepare a Water Shortage Contingency Plan
Training Module 9 - Preparation, Adoption and Submittal
Training Module 10 - How to Submit a UWMP to DWR

All 2020, 2015, 2000 and 2005 UWMPs submitted to DWR are available on the WUEdata Portal.

Aggregated data from the 2020 and 2015 tables of submitted UWMPs is available on the WUEdata portal.

Select data for the 2010 UWMPs may be downloaded from the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) Open Data Portal. For more information, see the 2010 UWMP data in the CNRA Open Data Portal.

For additional records (including those UWMPs prior to 2005), please submit requests for documents through the Public Records Request Portal.

As required by California Water Code, DWR must submit a report to the legislature describing the status of submitted UWMPs, statewide progress toward meeting the targeted 20% reduction in water use by 2020, and exemplary elements of submitted plans. These reports summarize the status of the planning cycle UWMP submittals received at the time of the preparation of the Legislative Report and they document key highlights in the UWMPs as determined by DWR.

To request a copy of a Legislative Report not listed above, please submit requests for documents through the Public Records Request Portal.

You may download UWMPs submitted for prior years by selecting the year of interest:

Access all other digital documents including methodologies, guidebooks, standardized table templates, drafts, red-line versions, and other associated urban water management planning documents:

For additional information, search the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) Open Data Portal. Search for the term “Urban Water Management Plan” or “UWMP” to locate the information of interest.

For additional documents, please submit requests through the Public Records Request Portal.