Marshall & Stevens to host September water risk forum

Marshall & Stevens will convene a virtual panel on Sept. 9 to examine how water scarcity is reshaping agriculture, infrastructure, energy, data centers and investment decisions. The forum comes as Western water shortages, groundwater rules and rising competition for supply are driving new valuation and capital-risk questions.

Why it matters: - Water scarcity is affecting asset values, underwriting, infrastructure planning and capital allocation across multiple sectors. - The forum is aimed at institutional investors, land and agricultural stakeholders, energy and data infrastructure firms, and water developers facing those risks. - Marshall & Stevens says the discussion is meant to help market participants understand how water stress may change long-term pricing and investment outcomes.

What happened: - Marshall & Stevens announced a 2026 Water Forum titled “Navigating Water Risk Across Agriculture, Infrastructure, and Capital.” - The virtual event is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. Pacific time, or 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. Eastern time. - Registration is available at the forum page. - Jennifer Simmonson, MAI, a director in Marshall & Stevens’ real estate practice, will moderate. - Panelists will include Bobby Majumder of FBT Gibbons, Rosemary Knight of Stanford University, Nati Louzon of IDE Water Technologies, and Megan Nicholas Harper of Nuveen Natural Capital.

The details: - The 90-minute forum will examine the growing imbalance between water supply and demand and its implications for businesses, communities and capital markets. - The discussion will focus on four areas: water shortages in the West, infrastructure and technology responses, competition between data centers and agriculture, and valuation and investment risk. - Western water topics will include the Colorado River, district and surface water constraints, groundwater regulation and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. - Infrastructure options under review include solar canals, desalination, groundwater recharge, water storage and water banking programs. - The panel will also assess whether water-demand technologies can scale at a cost that makes them practical. - The data center segment will look at water demand tied to energy and digital infrastructure growth, along with land-use conversion and displacement pressures. - The valuation segment will consider how scarcity affects underwriting, lender and insurer behavior, and which markets and assets may be most exposed to value erosion. - Marshall & Stevens said the forum reflects the firm’s broader focus on valuation, advisory services and complex assets.

Between the lines: - The panel reflects a shift in how water is being framed: not only as an environmental issue, but as a financial and operational constraint. - The inclusion of agriculture, infrastructure, law, energy and capital markets signals that water risk is increasingly cross-sector and not confined to one industry. - The strongest immediate pressure point appears to be the U.S. West, where scarcity, regulation and competing uses are converging. - Megan Nicholas Harper said the West’s water crisis is becoming an asset allocation and sustainability problem, and that growth is increasingly following water. - Bobby Majumder said water is a cooling capacity issue for data centers, underscoring the link between water access and digital infrastructure expansion.

What's next: - Marshall & Stevens will host the forum virtually on Sept. 9, 2026. - The company expects the conversation to help participants identify emerging risks, feasible solutions and markets where water security may shape future pricing. - The event could also inform how investors, lenders, insurers and operators think about water exposure in acquisition and development decisions.

The bottom line: - Water scarcity is moving from a planning issue to a valuation issue, and Marshall & Stevens is using the forum to put that shift in front of capital-market decision-makers.