Lakes Hodges outside San Diego shows the impact of drought. Joshua Koonce via Creative Commons

This month, California officially entered its fourth year of drought. Fields are dry, wildfires are flourishing, and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta -- which supplies 25 million Californians with drinking water -- is on the verge of environmental collapse.

If history and long-range climate forecasts are any indication, the word "drought" may no longer hold much meaning for Californians. Getting by with less water could become a way of life.

"Archaeologically, California has had a history of droughts that lasted for decades," says Wendy Martin, statewide drought coordinator for the California Department of Water Resources. And global warming probably won't make things any better, a report from her agency says.

By 2050, scientists project that a quarter of the snowpack in the Sierra mountain ranges -- an important source of drinking water for cities and irrigation for farms -- will disappear. Although more rain might fall in some parts of the state, the tradeoff will be more severe floods, the department says. And other parts of California could see even more dry years.

Yet the state of 37 million people doesn't have to dry up and blow away. As the drought crisis grows, water management experts are tapping into a wellspring of ideas for reducing the state's water use and finding new sources that could meet future needs.

Here are just a few of the most promising ones:

Strategy 1: Capturing Stormwater

Consider this: On a dry day in Los Angeles, up to 100 million gallons of urban runoff snakes through the city's drainage system, collecting trash and other city waste before emptying into the ocean.

That urban runoff contains enough water to fill the Rose Bowl, and then some. During a storm, that runoff can swell a thousandfold -- a huge untapped resource. Through better management practices, that wasted water could be captured and cleaned to help fulfill the parched city's needs.

That's the idea behind a strategy called low-impact development, or LID. Using porous pavement, creating rain gardens and collecting water in large tanks or barrels can reduce urban runoff, provide fresh drinking water and help recharge groundwater supplies.

How much water can that really save? A lot, according to a report released last month by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The organization says that aggressive use of LID techniques in some of the state's most-populated areas could supply a year's worth of water to two-thirds of the city of Los Angeles.

"It's a huge amount of water," says Noah Garrison, an NRDC project attorney who contributed to the report. "It's enough for roughly 800,000 families annually."

Low-impact development could also save energy -- enough to power 102,000 single-family homes for a full year, the report found -- and thus help fight global warming. The energy required for water use nationwide, including collection, distribution, treatment and disposal, releases as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as 10 million cars.

Strategy 2: Water-Efficient Farming

Agriculture consumes as much as 80 percent of California's water, according to estimates from the Oakland-based Pacific Institute. So more efficient farming methods -- such as replacing crops that need a lot of water, including rice, with crops that are less water intensive -- could provide major savings.

So could high-tech drip irrigation systems. They're commonly used by grape farmers, but could become much more widespread, says Robert Bea, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley who has researched water management techniques.

Drip irrigation systems rely on monitors to regulate water as it drips slowly through holes punched into tubes, adjusting the flow based on how "thirsty" the crops are. That means crops only get what they need, which can add up to substantial savings, Bea says.

The Pacific Institute says that the state's water use could be reduced 17 percent through better agricultural practices. That could go a long way toward making up what's expected to be lost through climate change. The institute also recommends scheduling irrigation times for early morning or late at night to minimize evaporation.

Strategy 3: Grey Water at Home

Bea, the engineering professor, recently took on the task of "greening" his own home. A big part of that task was finding ways to save -- and reuse -- water.

He hired a plumber to install pipes that drain water from his kitchen sink and the laundry machine into cisterns. Bea and his wife can now use that captured water -- known as "grey water" -- to provide for their oleanders, roses and hydrangeas, and to flush their toilets. They also collect shower water in buckets, which they use for similar purposes.

"We do not waste a drop of dishwater, laundry water or shower water," Bea says. "It's kind of like a home version of a water purification supply system."

Collecting and reusing grey water in just one household has the potential save as much as 26,000 gallons of drinking water per year, according to the Department of Water and Energy in the Australian state of New South Wales -- where some of these techniques are being promoted to deal with that country's own water supply problems. That's more than 520 bathtubs worth of water from a single house.

Recycling freshwater hasn't become popular yet in California, says Martin, the state's drought coordinator. But in places such as Los Angeles or Modesto, where the drought has forced governments to restrict outdoor watering, it could supply a much-needed resource for home gardeners to keep their plants satisfied.

Strategy 4: Public Education

Ultimately, Martin says, Californians will need to incorporate water-saving habits into their day-to-day lives as the water supply continues to dwindle. That means washing dishes and clothes only when the washing machines are full; filling the bathtub to halfway or less; and shutting off the faucet when brushing your teeth.

But how do you convince people to make water conservation a way of life? Rita Schmidt Sudman, executive director of the Water Education Foundation, says you have to start young.

Eleven years ago, her daughter's school had a classroom with a leaky faucet. When Sudman visited the third-grade class to give the students a lesson on water conservation, the first thing she did was put a bucket in the sink. By the time she had finished her lesson, the bucket was full. "See," she says. "That's how water is wasted."

Years later, she ran into one of her daughter's classmates in the Denver airport. "I'll never forget that drip in the back of the room and that bucket," Sudman recalls the young woman saying. "I always conserve water now because of you and that bucket."

Those kinds of savings, small as they might seem, can add up. The California Water Conservation Council says a slow faucet leak that drips 60 times per minute releases enough water every month to fill nearly five bathtubs.

Teaching children to become stewards of water at a young age is essential to planning for future needs, Sudman says. "Before I had daughter, I would have said, work with policymakers, work with adults. But it is vital to work with kids. And, you know, 10 years goes by in a minute."