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Journalist Geoff McGhee talks to Water Desk Director Mitch Tobin about how still images and video footage captured through aerial tours and drone flights can help explain water issues.   Check out The Water Desk’s FREE multimedia library (https://waterdesk.org/multimedia), which offers photos and videos of key rivers and water-related locations in the Colorado River Basin and beyond.   NOTE: This episode was recorded before the pandemic forced Lighthawk to shift to pilot-only flights, but we are now using mounted GoPros to capture imagery.    

Water Desk Director Mitch Tobin talks to Noah Molotch, Director of the Center for Water Earth Science & Technology (CWEST) at the University of Colorado Boulder, about the importance of snow to our water supply and what the future may hold for the American West’s snowpack. Visit waterdesk.org for more!

Water Desk Director Mitch Tobin talks to Fay Hartman, Conservation Director of the Colorado River Basin Program at American Rivers, about a new American Rivers report that examines the economic value of rivers and our nation’s crumbling water infrastructure. The report calls for Congress to invest $500 billion over 10 years on water infrastructure and river restoration.

We delve into water news with Heather Sackett, managing editor at Aspen Journalism, which is covering a variety of issues in Colorado. Topics include an investigative series that explores how investors are banking on the West’s water scarcity, a proposed new reservoir that would export water from the Western Slope to the Front Range, and whether cloud seeding can actually increase snowfall.

We discuss innovative water solutions with Cynthia Koehler, executive director of the Water Now Alliance, a nonprofit that works with water providers to help them address climate change and other challenges facing our water systems. Topics include water conservation, green infrastructure, tiered water pricing, big data and new technologies. Koehler is currently serving her 4th term as a board member of the Marin Municipal Water District, north of San Francisco.

Maps, charts, graphics and other data visualizations can be a fantastic tool for explaining water issues. Data visualization is one of the types of journalism that The Water Desk is focusing on as we seek to strengthen water-related coverage. In this episode, we talk with Water Desk consultant Geoff McGhee about some of the ways that data visualizations can help journalists tell stories about water. We discuss four dashboards on our website, waterdesk.org, that allow users to track and analyze data on drought, precipitation, the snowpack and major dams/reservoirs. Dive deep into water issues at waterdesk.org