Press Releases

Learning to live with too much or not enough water

Second day of Ten Across (10X) Water Summit examines "water in the city"

Mar 19, 2024

BATON ROUGE, La. (May 17, 2018) – Finding ways to increase water availability in the West and keeping excess water out of homes and businesses in the East focused the discussion Thursday at the inaugural 10X Summit on Water held in Baton Rouge, La.

In the West, Arizona’s growing population is working to maximize a limited water supply while in the East, communities struggle with what to do with too much water either from rainfall or storms.

One such example is the Gentilly Resilience District in New Orleans which combines a number of approaches to help retain water while also providing spaces for recreation and education. On the other side of the spectrum, Arizona is working toward public education and innovative water conservation efforts such as reusing 100 percent of wastewater to meet what the state knows will be in an increasing demand.

“At the core of each region’s challenges is the need to find new and more efficient ways to address water management,” said Jeff Hebert, Vice President for Adaptation and Resilience at The Water Institute of the Gulf. “Although our water management challenges are very different – flood and drought – developing solutions to address them holistically are very similar.”

Hebert was joined by a host of water experts from around the world Thursday during the second day of the 10X Water Summit being held in Baton Rouge, La. to discuss managing water within cities.

The discussion was one of many held during the second day of the 10X Water Summit, designed to stimulate the creation of key partnerships and shape Ten Across as an essential forum for the exchange of ideas across many different shared challenges with the first one being the issue of water. This inaugural 10X was held in Baton Rouge, La. and hosted by The Water Institute of the Gulf and Arizona State University in partnership with The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, the City of Baton Rouge, and the City of Phoenix.

Following the Interstate 10 corridor 2,400 miles from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Fla., the 10X initiative is developing a place where experts can explore, share, and communicate about critical issues facing not only local communities, but with application around the world. The 10X initiative shows that this region is a window onto the future and stands as a living laboratory for the biggest challenges including water, energy, human migration, urban development, and global commerce.

In the Ten Across region, climate change and other human factors fuel drought in the West and inundation in the East. The pairing of these extreme desert and coastal conditions has provided a compelling framing device for the Summit. While conditions in the Colorado and Mississippi watersheds differ in texture, shared concerns include long-term resilience, multi-jurisdictional policy issues, data-rich forecasting and visualization, and the skillful navigation of environmental, economic and societal adjustments to change.

"The 10X initiative fosters these kinds of discussions for improved communication and innovative thinking across a variety of issues," said Wellington “Duke” Reiter, originator of the Ten Across project and Arizona State University senior advisor to the president. “We’ve developed Ten Across to assemble this evidence in a compelling and coherent format and it was only fitting that we began that journey with water.”

About The Water Institute of the Gulf
The Water Institute is a not-for-profit, independent applied research and technical services institution with a mission to help coastal and deltaic communities thoughtfully prepare for an uncertain future. Through an integrated and inter-disciplinary approach, our work helps to create more resilient communities, thriving economies, and a healthy environment. For more information, visit www.thewaterinstitute.org.

About ASU
Arizona State University has developed a new model for the American Research University, creating an institution that is committed to access, excellence, and impact. ASU measures itself by those it includes, not by those it excludes. As the prototype for a New American University, ASU pursues research that contributes to the public good, and ASU assumes major responsibility for the economic, social, and cultural vitality of the communities that surround it. https://www.asu.edu/