David Catt

Photo of David Catt
Assistant Policy Researcher; Ph.D. Candidate, Pardee RAND Graduate School
Santa Monica Office

Education

B.S. in civil engineering, University of Kansas

Overview

David Catt is an assistant policy researcher at RAND and a Ph.D. student at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His major fields of interest include water supply, energy resources, climate change, infrastructure finance, management, and governance, and housing and land use policy. 

Catt has a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Kansas. Prior to joining Pardee RAND, he was a civil engineer at Black & Veatch, where he designed drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, conducted cost analyses, and analyzed long-term master plans for water utilities. As a fellow with the WISE Program in Washington, D.C., he analyzed technical and policy solutions to increase the fresh water supply in drought-stricken U.S. states.

Research Focus

Commentary

  • Five glasses of water, with dirty water in the center, photo by hdere/Getty Images

    How to Ensure Quality Drinking Water Service for All? One Option Is Fewer Utilities

    California's Human Right to Water Bill declares that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water.” One clear barrier to reaching this target is the sheer number of small water utilities that pose service sustainability and public health risks to their customers.

    Mar 26, 2019 The RAND Blog

  • The Colorado Aqueduct near the Iron Mountain Pumping Plant in Earp, California, April 16, 2015

    How Federal Policy Could Help Water and Wastewater Utilities

    A targeted approach could help the federal government address the root causes of infrastructure problems more effectively than a spending initiative that simply spreads money around with the hope that more spending might do some good.

    Jan 16, 2018 Inside Sources

Publications