Category: 2023

UT geoscientists using climate models to inform Austin’s long-term water plan To improve the resolution, researchers downscale the models by using statistical relationships between what the models have shown on a broad global level and local climate data, such as data collected by the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) and other agencies — precipitation, lake…

Hundreds of Texas students compete in National Geographic challenge Thanks to tireless schoolteachers, students’ hard work and support from TWRI and Texas A&M AgriLife, this spring hundreds of middle and high school students in Texas produced educational videos about environmental science for the National Geographic Slingshot Challenge. Faculty Fellows Program TWRI’s Faculty Fellows Program leverages…

A complicated environmental problem PFAS have two classifications: short-chain and long-chain, depending on their chemical make-up. While there is a little overlap, short-chain PFAS are typically defined as having less than six to eight carbon atoms, while long-chain PFAS have more than six to eight carbons. Long-chain compounds have different rates of solubility, transport and…

Understanding Texas’ reservoirs Max Strickler has managed federal reservoirs in Texas for over 10 years and knows many of those lakes inside and out. As a water management lead engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) – Fort Worth District, he supervises reservoir operations for 25 reservoirs across Texas, and each is a balancing…

Sanchez is a senior research scientist for the Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI). She is also the director of the Permanent Forum of Binational Waters and leads the Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Act program for Texas. Laura Rodriguez, a Ph.D. candidate in Texas A&M University’s Water Management and Hydrological Sciences graduate program, co-authored the research and worked as its resident geologist. Filling in the…

All these changes result in stormwater flowing into waterways faster — causing less predictable floods, new infrastructure needs, property damage, expensive challenges for communities and new water quality impairments. “Stormwater runoff from rain events in urban areas, or in locations with large amounts of impervious surfaces, flows directly into water bodies, taking with it any…

“The primary industry is agriculture and depending on where you’re at, could be rice, could be aquaculture, could be turfgrass, and then obviously row crops,” said Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) Interim Director Allen Berthold, Ph.D. “Another one is beef cattle. There’s a lot of wildlife, so it’s a popular hunting area as well as other…

Perkin and others with similar research focuses recognize the value of fish as ecological indicators. Scientists use these fish to understand the long-term consequences of short-term decisions humans make about water. “As researchers, we think of fish as providers of goods and services to humans on multiple fronts,” he said. “Whether we realize it or…

Her research team of graduate students and post-doctoral scholars is using cutting-edge technologies in their research, including state-of-the-art instrumentation for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions, modeling, and remote sensing. Rajan obtained her bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences from Kerala Agricultural University, master’s in soil science and agricultural chemistry from A.N.G.R. Agricultural University in Hyderabad, India, and Ph.D. in agronomy…