Water Sector Law and Policy
This tab includes laws and policies for avoiding or reducing climate change impacts in the water sector, including best practices and legal and policy analysis. Apply additional filters to narrow the list by resource type, impact, jurisdictional focus, state, or region.
105 results are shown below.
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January 20, 2026
New Jersey’s Resilient Environments and Landscapes (REAL) rules, adopted in January 2026, represent a landmark regulatory reform effort by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to better account for climate change and future conditions in development and environmental protection.
Related Organizations: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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June 10, 2025
Connecticut Public Act No. 25-33, signed by the Governor on June 10, 2025, is a wide-reaching environmental and climate adaptation law that creates new standards and requirements for state and local government as well as the private sector. Sections 5-16 of the Act make revisions to Connecticut's land use and planning statutes, ensuring that Connecticut’s local planning and regulatory frameworks account for observed and projected climate conditions.
Related Organizations: State of Connecticut
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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May 18, 2022
As coastal erosion and the threat of major hurricanes and other flooding events continue to threaten Louisiana, parishes have begun to adopt jurisdiction-specific approaches to mitigating those risks. The establishment of freeboard requirements, no-net fill practices, and the incorporation of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), such as open spaces and native vegetation, are three major ways to prepare for and mitigate flooding. This brief entry provides a non-exhaustive overview of some of the ways five Louisiana parishes are using these approaches: Ascension, St. Bernard, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, and Tangipahoa.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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May 18, 2022
This entry summarizes some approaches to regional watershed management and flood mitigation in Texas and Iowa. This research was conducted to inform Georgetown Climate Center's work in Louisiana's Region Seven Watershed.
Resource Category: Organizations
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November 15, 2021
The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (H. R. 3684, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) was signed into law on November 15, 2021. It includes historic levels of investment for infrastructure — $550 billion in new spending over five years and $650 billion for existing programs, totaling $1. 2 trillion. IIJA includes numerous standalone acts, including the Surface Transportation Investment Act of 2021, the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021, the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021, the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission Act of 2021, the Repairing Existing Public Land by Adding Necessary Trees (REPLANT) Act, and the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Appropriations Act.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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August 2021
In August 2021, the California Coastal Commission (CCC), one of California’s three coastal management agencies, issued the Critical Infrastructure at Risk: Sea Level Rise Planning Guidance for California’s Coastal Zone. The guidance serves as an advisory document for the state and local governments, asset managers, and stakeholders in California to update plans and policies for critical transportation and water infrastructure to adapt to sea-level rise and flooding. The guidance is based on different studies held to be the best available science on sea-level rise in California, which includes a projection of a 6-10 feet of sea-level rise by 2100.
Related Organizations: California Coastal Commission
Resource Category: Planning
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January 2021
The U. S. Water Alliance’s report “Recovering Stronger: A Federal Policy Blueprint” was released in early 2021 and addresses the acute needs of the nation’s municipal water infrastructure resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as long-term underfunding of water resources infrastructure and inequities in access to clean water. The report makes recommendations for how the federal government could make funding for municipal water resources more stable; make water supplies safer; improve access to safe drinking water and wastewater treatment in low-income communities, communities of color, and rural communities; modernize the water sector; improve resilience to climate change; and take a whole-of-government approach to managing the nation’s water resources.
Related Organizations: U.S. Water Alliance
Resource Category: Solutions
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December 23, 2020
In December 2020, the Mayor of Honolulu signed Ordinance 20-47 (Ordinance), which formally codifies the responsibilities of the previously-established City of Honolulu Office of Resilience (Resilience Office), which include coordinating a coastal and water program, a climate resilience and equity program, and a food sustainability program. The Ordinance is meant to address climate change concerns by building on previous ordinances, and implements a ‘one water’ policy for the city.
Related Organizations: City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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December 2020
The Wisconsin Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change, established in 2019, included a broad array of stakeholders and conferred with people from across the state to identify, examine, and include strategies to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and increase resilience to climate change impacts. The task force issued its report in December 2020, which identifies 55 strategies across 9 sectors: Climate justice and equity; Energy; Transportation; Agriculture; Resilient Systems; Clean economy; Education; Food systems; and Forestry.
Related Organizations: Wisconsin Governor's Task Force on Climate Change
Resource Category: Planning
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July 2020
In July 2020, the US Water Alliance released the report Water Rising: Equitable Approaches to Urban Flooding . The Report focuses on providing best practices for equitable solutions to flood control and resilience. It proposes five priority actions that policymakers can undertake to achieve this work: using data to identify risks, assets, and community vulnerabilities; committing to ongoing and meaningful community engagement; setting a proactive vision and building strategic alignment with that vision; fully incorporating equity into any resilience planning processes; and emphasizing that investors target frontline communities.
Related Organizations: U.S. Water Alliance, The Kresge Foundation
Resource Category: Solutions
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