Conference 2012 Workshop

Watering the Sun Corridor
Policy Workshop &
Water Democratization Initiative

Pre-Conference Workshop
Monday, January 23, 2012
11:30 am - 5:30 pm
UA Student Union

The Sonoran Institute and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, in collaboration with the Morrison Institute and the Water Resources Research Center’s annual conference is sponsoring a pre-conference workshop on January 23rd.  This is intended to be a lively interactive discussion on the fundamental policy and value choices we will face about water in the Sun Corridor and on the driving forces that will shape these choices and water use and management in Arizona.  We will start with the Morrison Institute’s Watering the Sun Corridor Report and a few presentations over lunch to introduce these topics.  The rest of the afternoon we will focus on small group discussions to dive deeper into these topics.  Results from this discussion will be reported to the full Water Resources Research Center conference the next day and will help shape a Sonoran Institute initiative to educate and engage the larger community of civic, business and political leadership in a broad based regional dialogue on our shared water future.

Our Objectives:
Some results we'd hope to come from the Watering the Sun Corridor report, this follow up January 23rd pre-conference workshop and then subsequent public engagement activities throughout 2012 include:

• Initiation of a broad based policy dialogue on our water management future that engages civic and business community leaders and Arizonans generally and provides an opportunity to establish a "consensus" vision for how we use and manage water.
• An understanding of the key policy choices and the implications of those choices, including tradeoffs … initially focused on the big picture "value" choices, but ultimately drilling down to shape the detailed water management policies – rules – statutes.
• An understanding of the key driving forces that will shape Arizona's water management needs, challenges and opportunities and recognition of the need to take long term perspectives that can address the uncertainty of these driving forces.
• Ultimately an identification and agenda of necessary and potential policy reforms and broad based long term support for necessary infrastructure and institutional capacity investments.