Discipline: Technology & Engineering
Subcategory: STEM Research
Lee Clapp - Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Co-Author(s): Mahesh Hosur (Texas A&M University-Kingsville; Shad Nelson, Texas A&M University-Kingsville; Selahattin Ozcelik, Texas A&M University-Kingsville; Tushar Sinha, Texas A&M University-Kingsville; Benjamin Turner, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
The vision for CREST-SWU is to achieve regional multidisciplinary research, education, and stakeholder collaboration to advance the understanding of sustainable water use in South Texas in the context of complex physical, hydroclimatic, regulatory, and social-economical settings. We envision stimulating the development and assessment of water availability and quality monitoring networks, models, and management tools that will ultimately promote sustainable water use in South Texas and similar semi-arid regions. The goal for CREST-SWU is to integrate academic researchers, stakeholders, and regulatory policy experts to develop and assess alternative management strategies for attaining sustainable water use in South Texas, particularly from the perspective of the water, energy and food security nexus. The Center will develop a five-year program of research, education and outreach related to the following three overarching Research Subprojects: 1) Monitoring and Information Systems (MIS), 2) Modeling and Dynamic Forecasting (MDF), and 3) Decision Support Systems (DSS). The MIS Subproject will enhance the existing understanding of sustainable water use in South Texas by developing comprehensive inventories of water availability, quality and demand, identifying critical data gaps, developing and assessing wireless sensor networks (WSN), unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and advanced analytical methods (AAM) for monitoring water availability and quality, and developing and assessing a geoinformatics system to store, integrate, visualize and disseminate water quantity/quality information for the three regional Water Planning Areas (WPAs N, L. and M). The MDF Subproject will extend the understanding of water availability and demand, spatially and temporally, by developing a comprehensive inventory of existing regional water availability and quality models (WAQMs), identifying model gaps, delineating metadata needed to integrate WAQMs, and developing, disseminating and assessing targeted WAQMs. The DSS Subproject will inventory existing water management strategies (WMSs) in the South Texas region; survey agricultural producers about the existing WMSs; and develop, disseminate and assess accessible decision-support tools to help regional stakeholders and policymakers evaluate the long-term efficacy of alternative water management strategies.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): This research is supported through a Cooperative Agreement (No. HRD-1914745) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Faculty Advisor: None Listed,
NSF Affiliation: CREST