(a) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, shall conduct research on coastal cliff landslides and erosion in the County of San Diego. As a condition of receiving funds pursuant to this section, the research conducted pursuant to this section shall involve both of the following:
(1) Developing a bluff failure database using historical records combined with analysis of recent and future coastal survey data. This database shall be used to establish landslide size frequency statistics, quantify failure rates, and identify erosion hot spots.
(2) Conducting real-time measurements of land deformation, to identify and analyze conditions that precede catastrophic bluff failure, on the following sites:
(A) Beacons Beach in the City of Encinitas.
(B) The City of Del Mar.
(C) San Elijo State Beach in the Cardiff area of the City of Encinitas.
(b) (1) The research described in subdivision (a) shall be completed no later than January 1, 2026. No later than March 30, 2026, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography shall, as a condition of receiving funds pursuant to this section, provide a report to the Legislature with recommendations for developing a coastal cliff landslide and erosion early warning system based on available research.
(2) A report submitted pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(3) The requirement for submitting a report imposed under paragraph (1) is inoperative on March 30, 2030, pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code.
(c) The Regents of the University of California and its employees, acting in good faith, shall not be civilly liable for any harm resulting from measurements, predictions, or warnings regarding bluff failure, cliff landslides, or erosion contained in the report or from the research described in subdivision (a) or related to the recommendations described in subdivision (b). This subdivision does not absolve the Regents of the University of California and its employees from liability under existing law for damages as a result of acts or omissions constituting gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct.
(d) The limitation of liability in subdivision (c) applies only to the Regents of the University of California and its employees. It does not apply to any other state or local agency.
(Amended by Stats. 2023, Ch. 80, Sec. 1. (AB 72) Effective January 1, 2024.)