NEVER WASTE A CRISIS: Drought as an opportunity to bring robust water-policy reform to California

California has experienced sustained drought since 2011 with 94 percent of the state experiencing severe drought conditions or worse as of July 2015 according to the US drought monitor (Cody et al., 2015); the drought conditions from 2012 to 2014 may be the most severe in 1200 years (Griffin and Anchukaitis, 2014). It is often argued that severe drought creates opportunities for robust water reform provided there is adequate preparation before the window of opportunity opens (Grafton et al., 2013). This chapter uses the ongoing Californian drought since 2011 as a backdrop to search for guidelines that can be used by those interested in shaping policy to reduce systemic risk. The notion of robustness–the proposition that it is possible to design and implement constellations of institutional arrangements that are less prone to cascading failures–is introduced.