Riparian zones provide valuable ecological services and economic benefits. Still, conservation efforts in arid regions are stymied by the public’s perceived concerns about overconsumption of water by riparian systems and infringements on private property rights. In addition, knowledge of existing tools to protect open space (e.g., conservation easements, purchase and transfer of development rights) may be limited and carbon or watershed markets remain uncommon. Rapidly growing communities in the U.S. Intermountain West (i.e., Arizona, Nevada, Utah), where new residential and commercial developments are often concentrated in valleys between mountain ranges, creates urgency to find innovative solutions for incentivizing riparian protection. Here, we report on progress from research that asks: 1) What is the spatial, temporal, and institutional range of current and proposed riparian protection policies and tools? 2) How do water supply and water rights obligations factor into existing riparian protection efforts? 3) What are opportunities and constraints for broadening carbon or watershed markets aimed at riparian conservation? These questions are being addressed through assembly and content analysis of extant municipal, county, and water district policies pertaining to riparian areas in Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, as well as a scoping review of literature related to riparia in arid zones. Results from our work will be publicly accessible via webpages within the Land Use Academy of Utah (LUAU) website, developed in partnership with the Utah Office of the Property Rights Ombudsman with support from the National Science Foundation through the Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine (NSF-SWSIE).