Nevada Water Initiative

Water Security Must be a Top Priority
Nevada must face the reality of being the most water-limited state in the nation and invest in forward-looking water resource management. The Nevada Water Initiative (NWI) plays a foundational role in understanding groundwater consumptive use, water budgets, and water availability to ensure adequate water supplies and management for municipal, agricultural, and industrial uses and for future public health and economic prosperity of the state.  

Current understanding of groundwater availability in Nevada commonly relies on baseline water budget estimates that were developed 50 to 70 years ago through a rapid-assessment approach. Contemporary data and advances in scientific methodologies, techniques, and equipment provide an opportunity to make significant updates to this foundational science aligning with current and future needs. However, as Nevada faces increasing challenges due to escalating economic growth and development pressures, questions surrounding the reliability of aging science used to determine groundwater availability are on the rise. This uncertainty raises concerns about potential overuse or improper use of our critical resource.  

To address these challenges proactively, the Nevada Division of Water Resources (NDWR), collaborating with Desert Research Institute (DRI) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Nevada Water Science Center, has initiated the Nevada Water Initiative (NWI). This collaborative effort is dedicated to updating baseline science to improve the understanding of groundwater availability across the state.

Current Project Components

Future Project Needs 

NWI aims to leverage insights from the demonstration basins and extend these techniques to other priority groundwater basins or regional flow systems to improve our understanding of groundwater budgets and availability. NDWR is actively pursuing additional funding to facilitate the implementation of future phases.

Updates and Presentations 

Learn about the Nevada Water Initiative through public presentations provided by NDWR and its collaborative partners, conveniently compiled for you here.

Information Products

NWI information products such as data sets, journal articles, and scientific reports are made available from this page as they are released.