Following the devastating January 2025 LA fires, UCLA's Luskin Center for Innovation partnered with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources' (UCANR) California Institute for Water Resources to host a series of four workshops as part of a water supply + wildfire research and policy coordination network.
Primarily funded by UCLA's Sustainable LA Grand Challenge, the work aims to strengthen preparedness and recovery at the water-fire nexus. The 2025 Los Angeles fires revealed some of the region's critical vulnerabilities, making clear the need to explore the relationship between water supply and wildfire dynamics.
This innovative collaboration, chaired by Greg Pierce, Senior Director of Luskin Center for Innovation, creates a formal forum for collaboration and aims to develop research and policy solutions to challenges related to water supply infrastructure, resilience, and post-fire recovery.
The effort is co-led by Faith Kearns, LCI affiliate and expert on water, wildfire, and climate based at Arizona State University; Edith de Guzman, UCANR Water Equity and Adaptation Policy Cooperative Extension Specialist with LCI; and Erik Porse, Director of California Institute for Water Resources.
Stay tuned to this page for updates.
Workshop 1: Water Systems’ Wildfire Fighting Capacities and Expectations
The Network held its initial workshop on Monday August 18, 2025 at the UC Student and Policy Center in Sacramento with more than 40 participants representing water systems, water industry associations, non-profit organizations, regulators, technical assistance providers, fire protection experts, engineering consultants and researchers from across California and beyond. The day-long workshop revealed five key themes:
- Water systems shouldn’t take on massive new wildfire fighting responsibilities
- Enhancing firefighting capacity is often expensive and runs up against other core water system mandates, especially water quality
- “Soft” management and coordination solutions are just as important as “hard” infrastructure solutions
- There are mixed opinions on whether or how to provide statewide best practices or standards
- There are interesting examples to follow and ideas to try, but firm recommendations for the space need further development
To build on this work, UCLA and UC ANR researchers are working to release an in-depth synthesis report on the workshop this fall, with future workshops planned in the coming months.
Workshop Materials and Outcomes
Workshop report forthcoming, fall 2025
Workshop 2: The Economics of Water Supply Systems in Fighting and Recovering from Wildfires
Planned for January 2026
Workshop 3: Post-fires Communication and Trust in Quality of Drinking Water
Planned for April 2026
Workshop 4: Tradeoffs at the Nexus Between Fire, Urban Vegetation and Water Supply
Planned for September 2026
