Our Once and Future Water Crisis

Our Once and Future Water Crisis

Virtual Preview – April 22, 2025
In-Person Summit – June 4-5 (Tentative), 2025
Arizona St. University, Tempe, AZ

Climate change, population and economic growth, shifting settlement patterns, equity concerns, and new demands from emerging technologies are all transforming the ability of society to satisfy its needs for clean water and sanitation.

This summit will explore the roles and responsibilities of the engineering community as stewards of water helping communities, states, the nation, and the world adapt to these unfolding conditions and evolving challenges.

The session will also explore such questions as …

• What could the engineering community do to help dispel the “American illusion of water abundance” (Cynthia Barnett, Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis) and catalyze societal change to address this wicked problem?
• How can communities and society balance competing interests and demands for this common, limited resource?
  • What is the role of the engineering community helping people navigate this critical balancing act?
• What does the intersection of water, blue infrastructure, and culture look like?
  • How might the connection between these elements be made more visible to individual citizens, private entities, and government?
• What high-potential leverage points can the engineering community target to catalyze positive change with respect to clean water and sanitation systems?
  • What “best practices” from communities and/or regions that are moving toward sustainable and/or regenerative water futures can we learn from?
• What are the macro-ethical dimensions and dilemmas of the water crisis?
  • What might a “water ethic” (or set of guiding beliefs) for the engineering community look like?

Registration fee: $750/person ($650/person for three or more registrants from the same organization)

Register now

Agenda:

Our Once and Future Water Crisis Summit Agenda (coming soon)

Reading List:

Our Once and Future Water Crisis Summit Reading List (coming soon)

Provocateurs:

 

Please contact us with any questions.