Between LA County’s 1996 LA River Master Plan and the City of LA’s 2007 LA River Revitalization Master Plan, technological advances, GIS, and new data sources enabled the City of LA to advance thinking. Similarly, the LA River Master Plan process benefited from additional climate information, advanced mapping and scripting technologies, and a series of studies that have been completed, such as the 2016 LA Countywide Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment and the 2016 LA County Health Survey, which were not available in 1996 or 2007. Since these efforts LA County has also completed the OurCounty Sustainability Plan which outlines ambitious goals for resilience and climate change mitigation initiatives.

The goals and projects of the LA River Master Plan are expected to take approximately 25 years to implement. As such, the LA River Master Plan is intended to be a living document. Progress reports on the status of Master Plan implementation should be completed. An interim review and partial update should be completed in 10-12 years, and the plan should be more comprehensively updated again in 20-25 years.

Many studies related to the LA River are ongoing, such as the LA River Environmental Flows Study being carried out by the State Water Resources Control Board and the Regional Water Quality Control Board. The planning continuum of the LA River is ongoing and does not end with the LA River Master Plan. The goals, actions, and methods of this plan recommend additional studies that should be carried out in the coming decade to augment existing knowledge and data related to the LA River, the watershed, and the social fabric of the communities along the river. The LA River Master Plan design strategy is a data-based methodology that can be updated if and when new data becomes available.