Western Water Policy Program
The Western Water Policy Program (WWPP) is the home for the water-related research projects, events, and advisory activities of the Getches-Wilkinson Center for National Resources, Energy, and the Environment. Since hosting our first major water conference in 1981 (Water Resources Allocation: Laws and Emerging Issues), the WWPP has convened over 40 multi-day water conferences and produced well over 100 major reports and books. More importantly, the program has repeatedly proved to be an invaluable source of insights and ideas for legal and policy innovation, serving policymakers, activists, academics, and the public in the American West and beyond.
The WWPP is predicated on the belief that few (if any) factors will have more significance in shaping the long-term future of the American West than our ability to improve water management. While the primary function of the WWPP is to highlight innovations in water policy and law, the WWPP is cognizant that positive change can take many forms, including economic and administrative reforms, technological innovations, and social change, and that one role of the WWPP is to identify the most productive avenues for innovation.
Many of the products of the Getches-Wilkinson Center (formerly the Natural Resources Law Center) can be found in the within the University of Colorado Law School.Ìý This is the primary archive for materials from 1983 through 2016.Ìý Efforts are currently underway to update the Collection with materials from the past decade.Ìý In the meantime, many of those products are available through links on other GWC pages.