Past Projects

High-Resolution Mapping

We collaborated with the Conservation Innovation Center of Maryland’s Chesapeake Conservancy on precise high-resolution mapping, down to one square meter, to model how water moves across the landscape and impacts local and regional land use. This collaboration resulted in floodplain mapping for green infrastructure for the Pima County Flood Control District in Arizona; regional land use land cover mapping for the Denver Regional Council of Governments in Colorado; an ArcGIS StoryMap, Swimming Upstream,  of the Endangered Fish Recovery Program for the Colorado Water Conservation Board; and ecosystem service opportunities near Bears Ears National Monument, Utah, in collaboration with the Grand Canyon Trust. These high-resolution mapping products provide organizations with information critical to identifying priorities at the parcel scale, such as green infrastructure placement. This work is invaluable to land and water managers, local planners, and policymakers whose decisions impact the economy and quality of life in their communities.

Colorado Water and Land Use Planning Alliance

The Babbitt Center provided seed funding for a position within the Colorado Department of Local Affairs to spearhead this group and still collaborates with various alliance members. The alliance is a grassroots group of multidisciplinary partners comprising state agencies, local governments, NGOs, and researchers that help local communities effectively incorporate water into comprehensive planning. The alliance’s work supports priorities in the Colorado Water Plan, one of which is to help achieve a Colorado Water Plan goal: by 2025, 75 percent of Coloradans will live in communities that have incorporated water-saving actions into land use planning.

Water, Land, and Growth in Central California

The San Joaquin Valley is one of the fastest growing regions of California, and the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) is likely to have far-reaching implications on communities’ future growth there. The valley’s urban, suburban, and rural communities bear the brunt of new growth in the region yet may not have renewable water supplies to meet future demands. The Babbitt Center worked with the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center to understand the implications of California’s SGMA on urban, suburban, and rural communities in the San Joaquin Valley.

2019 Journalists Forum

In partnership with the Walton Family Foundation, the Gates Family Foundation, and the Arizona State University Cronkite School of Journalism, we hosted a Journalists Forum that explored the history, science, and politics of water management, and delved into innovative policies and practices that help forge a sustainable water future.

Presentations, session video clips, and the agenda from the forum are hosted online.

View Forum Materials

Enhance Colorado’s Water Efficiency Plans

We worked with the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School to write Best Practices for Implementing Water Conservation and Demand Management Through Land Use Planning Efforts. This document, adopted by the Colorado Water Conservation Board in January 2019, updated the State of Colorado’s water efficiency plan guidance to include land use practices that foster water savings.

Lessons from the Colorado River: Climate, Land, and Drought

Previous US Interior Secretary and Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt and former US Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman discussed the future of the Colorado River. Moderated by Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy Director Jim Holway, this 75th Anniversary Lincoln Institute Dialogue covered Colorado River conditions; current and emerging policy challenges; lessons on international and interstate river management; and how local governments, water utilities, land managers, and Native American nations can promote water sustainability.

View the Recording of the Dialogue and Related Resources

Trouble in Paradise: Arizona’s Distressed Golf Courses

The Babbitt Center catalogued Arizona’s golf courses, detailing information on location, state of operations, relation to nearby homes, and water use to pinpoint courses that are either already distressed or could become distressed. If a golf course is identified as distressed, the Babbitt Center and the impacted community can study best-case scenarios to revitalize or adapt it to enhance financial stability, optimize livability, and promote more sustainable use of valuable land.

Water & Tribes Initiative

Thirty Native American Indian tribes have inhabited the Colorado River Basin region for millennia. They depend on the waters of the Colorado River and its tributaries and are major water rights holders. However, many tribes are unable to access their water rights and have traditionally been excluded from the development of Colorado River policy. The Water & Tribes Initiative (WTI) was founded in 2017 to address these issues. The goals: facilitate connections among tribes and other leaders, build trust and understanding, and create opportunities to explore shared interests and take collaborative action. The Babbitt Center is proud to serve as the founding and managing funder and fiscal agent for the Water & Tribes Initiative (WTI).

Our Mission

The Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, a center of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, seeks to advance the integration of land and water management to meet the current and future water needs of Colorado River Basin communities, economies, and the environment. We help communities to effectively manage their land and water resources.

Programs of the Babbitt Center

Integration of Urban Land and Water Policy

Many times, as land use plans are developed, current water availability and projects for future water demands are not taken into account. This has led to overdevelopment, strain on water supplies, and limited access to water for both urban and rural needs—affecting economies, environments and food supplies. Through this program, the Babbitt Center seeks to ensure that any land or water use plan that is either in development or review takes the other into account in a uniformed fashion—addressing current and future needs of each natural resource.

Water and Agriculture

Globally, around 70 percent of freshwater withdrawals are used for agriculture, making it the largest consumer of water. In addition to this water use, agricultural production also accounts for more than one-third of global land use. Decisions made regarding how, what, and where crops are grown are often devoid of the water resources necessary to sustainably grow those crops. Additionally, more pressure is being placed on agriculture than ever before to provide a safe and reliable supply of food, feed, fuel, and fiber for the global population. Taking in to account global shifts in population, decreasing amount of land available for agriculture, and increasing pressure for different types of crops, water should be part of all decisions related to land use and production.

Nature-Based Solutions

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are actions that restore, manage, or protect natural ecosystems, which in turn help address societal challenges such as climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, and human health. While the interventions and outcomes of nature-based solutions are not new, the concept of integrating nature-based solutions in policy is. Land as a natural resource can and should be a driver in opportunities associated with addressing societal challenges through nature.

See All Our Past Projects

Established in 2020, the Center for Geospatial Solutions (CGS) is a self-sustaining nonprofit enterprise operating out of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. We are a nonprofit data solutions provider, working with external partners to transform how land, water, and social resources are managed and protected.

At CGS, we believe that better decisions—about housing, infrastructure, conservation, and community well-being— depend on better data. That’s why we specialize in building modern, integrated, and actionable geospatial systems for the public good. We approach this work with a commitment to objectivity and service, and our work helps federal agencies, state and local governments, nonprofits, and regional and national networks access the tools and insights they need to tackle complex challenges.

We are more than technologists. We are systems thinkers, designers, data scientists, and community collaborators. Our strength lies in helping mission-aligned organizations use data not just to understand the world—but to change it.

Mission and Vision

CGS was founded to enable data-driven decisions for the greater good of land, water, and people. Our expert team improves how data is accessed, interpreted, and applied to help changemakers big and small fulfill their purpose. We envision a world where new technologies—like remote sensing, AI, and geospatial analysis—are used to realize swift and fair outcomes for people and the planet.

Learn More About Our Services

Case Study: Nature Conservancy of Canada

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is the leading land conservation organization in Canada. Since 1962, the nonprofit and its partners have helped protect more than 35 million acres (14 million hectares) across Canada. NCC is working with us to develop a long-term technology strategy that streamlines data collection and management across the organization and allows all of its programs to leverage the latest technology to improve conservation prioritization, securement, and management. This strategy is helping reduce the time it takes staff to effectively manage properties and communicate key metrics to outside partners and funders. Access to better technology is also making it easier for NCC to effectively leverage new revenue sources, such as carbon offsets, by quantifying and capitalizing on the ecological benefits of land conservation.

Learn About the Nature Conservancy of Canada

Enabling Better Decisions About Land, Water, and People

At our core, CGS helps partners make better, more informed decisions about how land, water, and other resources are used, governed, protected, and shared. We ensure that data is a decision-making asset—not just a technical resource.

Our clients and collaborators rely on us to translate complex challenges into achievable solutions that are grounded in real-world goals and community values.

“The Center for Geospatial Solutions is moving the global environmental field forward to meet ambitious goals set forth by scientists to save and restore our planet.”

—Jack Dangermond, President and CEO of Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri)

Visit our website to learn more.

Land Matters Podcast / Temporada 4 / Episodio 6

Water in the West: Jim Holway Reflects on Decades of Problem-Solving

October 31, 2023

Listen on:

By Anthony Flint, October 31, 2023

Water in the West—one of the most enduring and confounding stories of human settlement anywhere around the world.

Jim Holway, who retired as director of the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy this summer, has spent more than 40 years helping to solve the puzzle of ensuring sustainable water resources in this increasingly arid region. In the latest Land Matters podcast, he describes the challenges ahead, and the kind of leadership—and serious, good-faith negotiation—it will take to establish a more secure water future.

With some places having their water restricted, and big reservoirs like Lake Mead drawing down to historically low levels, it has become increasingly clear that water from the Colorado River—distributed to nine states in the US and Mexico through a series of agreements and amendments hammered out since the 1920s—is no longer enough to meet the demands of a fast-growing population.

How did the region get to this point? “I’d say it was a combination of optimism, beginning with allocating more water [than would be available], and then it was just ignoring science for political reasons,” said Holway. “If I want to get my water project approved, it’s going to be a lot easier if I can convince people there’s enough water left for their project too. Even once we should have known better, we acted like we didn’t know better.”

The water allocations now have a structural deficit, Holway said, that is clear throughout the year-to-year ups and downs of drought and sufficient snowpack. Climate change is intensifying everything.

“We designed a hydrologic system for a physical reality that is changing on us, and the change in the level of heat is driving the system. More evaporation and more demand for agriculture, more demand in urban use—that heat is actually a more significant factor than precipitation. Whereas there is a lot of uncertainty about what the future precipitation changes will be in the Southwest, it’s very clear that it’s going to be hotter.”

While politicians debate climate science, Holway says, water and land managers know they have no choice but to prepare for the uncertain future that climate change will bring: “Droughts that cause inadequate supplies for historic uses, floods that exceed the infrastructure we’ve built to handle flooding, wildfires of much greater intensity and size, urban areas that are getting increasingly hot and leading to crisis situations in the middle of the summer—this is the reality of our future, and we need to adapt to deal with it.”

Building the capacity of local communities to integrate land use planning and the management of water resources has been the calling card of the Babbitt Center under Holway’s tenure, including using scenario planning techniques to map out future supply and demand conditions. Importantly, agriculture—which uses approximately three-quarters of Colorado River water—has increasingly been at the table, Holway said.

When asked to look to the future, Holway said, “It’s important for anyone doing this kind of work to find some way to sustain themselves. I suspect the thing that makes me most optimistic is when I look at the 20- and 30-year-olds getting involved . . . it seems that they really have an understanding of the challenges they’re inheriting.”

One of those challenges is developing the capacity to work together as a civilization to address water shortages in a more serious and straightforward manner, he said.

“When societies fail, it may look like it’s because of a flood, a drought, disease, or warfare. However, societies have survived those challenges before. Why do they not survive the next one? Typically, what we find is they have lost the ability to govern themselves.

“To me, that is where my main pessimism comes from. It isn’t our water challenge. It’s, will we come together? Will we make the necessary decisions we need to govern ourselves? That is our biggest challenge, and it’s what we’re doing particularly badly at the moment.”

Water, Holway said, “perhaps will help us rediscover our ability to come together and make collaborative decisions. There are very few things that humans see as critical to their survival [more than] a good water supply. That’s pretty clear and pretty compelling. Let’s hope it’s part of our path forward.”

Jim Holway served as director of the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy from its founding in 2017 until late 2023. He was elected to the board of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, directed the Western Lands and Communities program with the Sonoran Institute, and served as a professor of practice in sustainability at Arizona State University and assistant director at the Arizona Department of Water Resources. He has degrees from Cornell University and the University of North Carolina, and was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

You can listen to the show and subscribe to Land Matters on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Anthony Flint is a senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, host of the Land Matters podcast, and a contributing editor of Land Lines.

Lead image: Jim Holway, founding director of the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy. Credit: Courtesy image.

Further Reading

Colorado River growers say they’re ready to save water, but need to build trust with states and feds (NPR)

John Farner Named Executive Director of the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy (Land Lines magazine)

Fellows in Focus: Neha Gupta (Land Lines magazine)

The Babbitt Center: Who We Are (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy)

The Hardest-working River in the West (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy)

Sowing Seeds (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy)

Contact

babbittcenter@lincolninst.edu

Who We Are
The Babbitt Center is building capacity to secure our water future. Learn More

Join Our Mailing List

The sustainability of water and land resources is one of the greatest challenges facing the Colorado River Basin. Since most land use requires an adequate water supply, meaningfully addressing this challenge requires recognizing how land use decisions shape water demand. This link is the cornerstone of the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, a center at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Building Capacity to Secure Our Water Future

Land use decisions that shape our water future are made every day. And a thriving, sustainable future in the West requires that communities integrate land and water policy decisions. The Babbitt Center seeks to advance the integration of land and water management to meet the current and future water needs in the Colorado River Basin. Our efforts will advance water sustainability and resilience in the Colorado River Basin, throughout the West, and ultimately throughout the world.

Watch the Babbitt Center signature video to learn more about our approach to solving water management and land use integration challenges.

Our Work

Real-world understanding, research and training, and collaborative partners who share resources are valuable catalysts that strengthen a community’s ability to secure its water future. Our work is focused throughout the seven Colorado River Basin states, binationally across the basin into Mexico, and with 30 Native American tribes, boosting communities’ resilience and building a global exchange of transformative ideas with other arid and semiarid regions.

Learn More About Our Work

Featured Programs and Projects

Integrating land use and water management requires innovative approaches and partnerships. The Babbitt Center works closely with governmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), academic institutions, and business leaders to address challenges and harness opportunities. We conduct research and develop tools, promote best practices, provide training, and facilitate partnerships to guide decision-making for sustainable management of land and water resources.

Colorado River Basin Map

The Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy produced an updated Colorado River Basin Map in partnership with the Center for Geospatial Solutions. This map showcases the geography and hydrography of the Colorado River Basin, corrects inconsistencies in contemporary maps of the region, and provides water managers, tribal leaders, educators, and other stakeholders with an updated resource as they confront critical issues related to growth, resource management, and sustainability.

See the Map

Growing Water Smart

Historically, planning for water resources and land use have been conducted separately. Yet, where and how we build greatly impacts water supply and demand and the quality of water that supports our ecosystems. The Growing Water Smart program helps community leaders integrate water and land use planning to further the sustainability and resilience of their community. Multidisciplinary community teams of key decision-makers and personnel, such as elected officials, planning commissioners, water resource managers, land use planners, and economic and community developers, come together in facilitated work sessions to: 1) set a workshop intention, 2) evaluate current water smart policies and practices, 3) develop community water efficiency goals, 4) make the case for water smart change in their communities, and 5) create a team action plan that identifies tasks and timelines for meeting the community’s water efficiency goals.

Learn More About Growing Water Smart

The Hardest-Working River in the West: A StoryMap of the Colorado

Explore the key water sustainability issues in the Colorado River Basin through data and stories updated regularly. Although not the largest or longest river in the world, the Colorado River connects a rich array of social and ecological communities along its 1,450-mile journey from its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to its mouth in the Gulf of California, Mexico.

See the StoryMap

Sowing Seeds: How Scenario Planning Can Help Agricultural Communities Build a Resilient Future

In March 2023, a consortium of Mesa County, Colorado, residents gathered to use a process called exploratory scenario planning, or XSP, to envision a more resilient future for their community and agricultural economy. The Mesa Conservation District hosted the workshop, developed by the Babbitt Center in partnership with Lincoln Institute’s Scenario Planning team and Arizona State University’s Arizona Water Innovation Initiative. XSP helps communities plan for an uncertain future by exploring multiple possibilities of what might happen. The practice helps planners, community members, and other stakeholders consider various futures and how to effectively plan with various driving forces at play. XSP encourages a wide range of perspectives and brings diverse voices into the discussion to help create plans that community leaders and stakeholders can implement.

Watch the Documentary

Perspectives from the Field: The Future of Agriculture

The Colorado River is pivotal in supporting agricultural production throughout the basin, not only contributing significantly to the economies and livelihoods of rural communities but also supporting our national food supply and global food security.

This two-page summary synthesizes the findings of the Babbitt Center report “Agriculture in the Colorado River Basin States: Challenges and Implications for the Future,” which explores the main issues farmers and ranchers in the region face due to weather and water supply changes, and how insights from those most impacted can be used to craft effective solutions.

Read the Executive Summary