Western Water Law and Policy

In order to understand how changing climatic and hydrologic regimes impact real-world water availability and use in the West, it is necessary to have a working knowledge of the legal and policy arrangements for allocating and managing water.  This is a broad and complex subject matter.  The following pages include links to documents and organizations that provide a sampling of relevant information from a variety of authors and viewpoints.  Given the richness of the issues covered, this site does not provide a comprehensive or authoritative treatment of this subject matter, but can be a useful entry-point to further investigation and understanding.