DougKenney

  • Western Water Policy Program Director
  • GETCHES-WILKINSON CENTER
  • COLORADO RIVER RESEARCH GROUP

Doug Kenney has been with the Natural Resources Law Center/GWC since 1996, where he is the Director of the Western Water Policy Program, the Chairman of the ĢӰ River Research Group, and the host/organizer of summer water conference. He researches and writes extensively on several water-related issues, including law and policy reform, transboundary resource management, and climate change adaptation. Dr. Kenney has served as a consultant to a variety of local, state, multi-state, and federal agencies, including several Interior Department agencies, EPA, the U.S. Forest Service, and special commissions (e.g., the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission); and national governments and non-governmental organizations in Asia and Africa. Additionally, he has made presentations in (at least) 21 states (and the District of Columbia), 8 nations, and 5 continents. He has a B.A. in biology from the University of ĢӰ, a M.S. in Natural Resources Policy and Administration from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Renewable Natural Resource Studies from the University of Arizona.

Douglas Kenney's abbreviated CV can be found here.

Selected ĢӰ River Publications & Presentations

Publications

Kenney, Doug. 2025. The Erosion of the ĢӰ River Safety Nets is Alarming. IN: Dancing with Deadpool. ĢӰ River Research Group. Getches-Wilkinson Center.

McKinney, Matthew, Jason Robison, John Berggren and Doug Kenney. 2025 Toward a Basinwide Entity: Moving from Vision to Action. IN: Dancing with Deadpool. ĢӰ River Research Group. Getches-Wilkinson Center.

Berggren, J., J. Fleck, D. Kenney and Mariana Rivera-Torres. 2022. A Pie No More? Building a More Equitable ĢӰ River Governance Structure. IN: Cornerstone at the Confluence: Navigating the ĢӰ River Compact’s Next Century (edited by Jason Anthony Robison). ISBN-13:978-0-8165-4764-7. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Kenney, Douglas S., Michael Cohen, John Berggren and Regina M. Buono. 2021. The ĢӰ River Basin. IN: , (edited by Jurgen Schmandt and Aysegul Kibaroglu). ISBN:9781108417037. Cambridge University Press.

Kenney, Douglas S. 2020. The Changing Fate of Western Rivers: The Case of the ĢӰ. IN: The Environmental Politics and Policy of Western Public Lands (edited by Erika Allen Wolters and Brent S. Steel). Corvallis: Oregon State University Press.

Dilling, L., M. Daly, D. Kenney, R. Klein, K. Miller, A. Ray, W. Travis, and O. Wilhelmi. 2019. "Drought in urban water systems: Learning lessons for climate adaptive capacity." Climate Risk Management 23 (2019) 32-42.

Dilling L., J. Berggren, J. Henderson, and D. Kenney. 2019. “Savior of rural landscapes or Solomon’s choice? ĢӰ’s experiment with alternative transfer methods for water (ATMs).” Water Security.

Hanak, Ellen, Brian Gray, Jeffrey Mount, Kurt Schwabe, Timothy Bradley, Bonnie Colby, Douglas Kenney, Josué Medellín-Azuara, and Jean-Daniel Saphores. 2016. "California's Water: The ĢӰ River." Public Policy Institute of California Policy Briefing Paper. October.

Miller, Kathleen A., Alan F. Hamlet, Douglas S. Kenney, and Kelly T. Redmond (editors). 2016. Water Policy and Planning in a Variable and Changing Climate. CRC Press.

Robison, Jason, and Douglas S. Kenney. 2013. Equity and the ĢӰ River. Environmental Law, 42(4):1157-1209.

Kenney, Douglas S., Sarah Bates, Anne Bensard, and John Berggren. 2011. The ĢӰ River and the Inevitability of Institutional Change. Public Land & Resources Law Review, 32:103-152.

Kenney, Doug, Andrea Ray, Ben Harding, Roger Pulwarty, and Brad Udall. 2010. Rethinking Vulnerability on the ĢӰ River. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 144:5-10, March.

Kenney, Douglas S. 2010. Rethinking the Future of the ĢӰ River. Interim Report of the ĢӰ River Governance Initiative. Boulder: Natural Resources Law Center, Western Water Policy Program.

Presentations

“Trends and Emerging Issues in Western Water” at the CSG-West annual meeting. Jackson, Wyoming. September 18, 2025.

“Upper ĢӰ River” at the Crested Butte Public Policy Forum. Crested Butte, CO; June 24, 2025.

“Turning Hindsight into Foresight: The ĢӰ River at a Crossroads” (as host) at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, University of ĢӰ. Boulder, CO; June 5-6, 2025.

"ĢӰ River 101: Modern decision-making in the basin"as part of Navigating the Rapids: ĢӰ River Governance in the 21stCentury. University of Arizona, Tucson. February 15, 2024.

“Crisis on the ĢӰ River: From Short-Term Solutions to Long-Term Sustainability” (as host) at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, University of ĢӰ. Boulder, CO; June 8-9, 2023.

“From Hindsight to Foresight: Beyond the ĢӰ River Compact’s Centennial” at the 6th Annual Water & Tribes Luncheon at the 2022 ĢӰ River Water Users Association conference. Las Vegas, NV. December 14, 2022.

“Climate Change & ĢӰ River Governance” at the event, Confluence: The ĢӰ River at the Compact’s Centennial. University of Arizona. Tucson, Arizona. December 6, 2022.

“2026 May be Too Late: Hard Conversations about Really Complicated Issues” (as co-host) at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, University of ĢӰ. Boulder, CO; June 16-17, 2022.

Time to Get Real.” Equity in the ĢӰ River Basin: How to Sustainability Manage a Shrinking Resource, at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, University of ĢӰ. Boulder, CO; October 1, 2021.

“The Grand Transect: From the High Plains to the Height of Rocky Mountain National Park” at the 29th Annual Conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Estes Park, CO; October 10, 2019.

“Is the ĢӰ River Compact Still Relevant: Why or Why Not?” at the Water Property Investor Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA; October 3, 2019.

“The Case for a Grand Bargain” at the Annual Seminar of the ĢӰ River District. Grand Junction, CO; September 18, 2019.

“The ĢӰ River Water Scarcity Crisis Explained” at the 14th Annual Hydrologic Sciences Symposium. Boulder, CO; April 12, 2019.

“Drought, Aridification, and the New Normal” at the annual conference of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. Cheyenne, WY; November 17, 2018.

“What Lies Beneath?: Reasons to Care (and be Excited ĢӰ) Groundwater Use and Management in the Southwest” (as host) at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, University of ĢӰ. Boulder, CO; June 7-8, 2018.

"How are other states dealing with changes in water use and growth" at the Idaho's Water: Supply and Quality in a Time of Growth conference. Boise, ID; April 17, 2018.

“The ĢӰ River: Searching for Sustainability” at the SERIDAS workshop. Bellagio, Italy; November 15, 2017.

“Climate Change, Water, and Our Future” at the ĢӰ Foundation for Water Education’s water fluency program. Parachute, CO; July 25, 2017

"Fighting Back on the ĢӰ River: Carving Out Progress on Multiple Fronts” (event host). University of ĢӰ, Boulder; June 8-9, 2017.

“Water Rights & Responsibilities: Expanding the Use of Market Forces” at the Sustainability Summit, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA; April 28, 2017.

“ĢӰ State of Mind” TV (PBS) show, reporting on the functioning of the Interim Guidelines and the Lower Basin structural deficit. (With Reagan Waskom.) January 21, 2016.

"Extremes, Averages or Both: Where Do the Risks Lie?" Upper ĢӰ River Basin Forum. Grand Junction, CO; October 29, 2015.

"Water Scarcity in the ĢӰ River: Who Gets the Water?" Presentation to the Ridgway-Ouray Community Council. Ridgway, CO; October 15, 2015.

“Challenges for the ĢӰ River Basin” (webinar). Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of ĢӰ. Boulder, ĢӰ; October 16, 2013.

“Policy and Legal Implications of Reduced ĢӰ River Flows.” Presentation at the Annual Conference of the Universities Council on Water Resources and the National Institutes of Water Resources (UCOWR/NIWR), Boulder, CO; July 12, 2011.

“Rethinking the Future of the ĢӰ River.” Presentation to the ĢӰ River Water Users Association, Las Vegas, NV; December 16, 2010.