How much do the voting habits of a city’s residents affect that city’s water conservation policies?

Researchers have tried to find out, by putting together a database of nearly 200 American cities and their conservation policies. They then looked at other characteristics of those cities, including climate, local economy, how arid it is and growth rate, and then looked how those cities voted in presidential elections.

The results show Phoenix has fewer conservation policies in place than researchers would have otherwise expected.

Jonathan Gilligan, a professor of earth and environmental sciences and civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University and lead author of the study, joined The Show to talk about it.