Innovative Approaches for Adapting to Water Variability in the West

This brief reviews three approaches that communities are pursuing to adapt to climate change:

• New Mexico's Active Water Resource Management program, which put rules into place that allow for temporary water use changes in real time in case of drought.
• The Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA), which was founded by water managers concerned by a gap in climate assessment and adaptation science needed to support their decisions.
• Colorado's Joint Front Range Climate Change Vulnerability Study, which brings together the state and water utilities to assess climate change's impact on local water availability.