The Inland Deserts Regional Report includes climate science, impacts, and adaptation information for Imperial, Inyo, east Kern, northeast Los Angeles, east Mono, San Bernardino, and east Riverside counties.
California’s Inland Deserts region is a land of wide-open deserts, rugged mountains, dry lakebeds, river corridors, dunes, springs, and oases. The region includes the Mojave, Sonoran, and Colorado deserts and stretches across Imperial County and the desert portions of Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Kern, and Inyo counties. Together, these landscapes form California’s hottest and driest region.
With a population of about one million residents, the region is home to growing cities such as Palm Springs, Indio, El Centro, and Victorville, along with many smaller rural communities. The region is also home to Tribal Nations whose ties to these lands go back countless generations. These communities maintain place-based knowledge systems tied to hydrologic features—springs, washes, palm groves, and mesquite oases that function as climate refugia and cultural landscapes.
Life in the Inland Deserts is shaped by heat, water scarcity, and distance. Communities across the region often face long travel times, limited resources, and uneven access to healthcare and public services. Many residents, including Tribal communities, farmworkers, and low-income households, are already dealing with environmental burdens such as poor air quality and extreme heat.
The region’s landscapes support a wide range of life and livelihoods. They include agricultural areas that help feed California and the nation as well as national and state parks that draw visitors from around the world. Tourism, farming, outdoor recreation, and renewable energy all play major roles in the regional economy.
Inland Deserts Regional Report
Coordinating Lead Author
Francesca Hopkins, UC Riverside
The full report will be available soon.