Article originally written by Chantal Cough-Schulze
When Laura Rodriguez Lozada was a child, she loved taking things apart. She would distill things down to their basic components and figure out how to piece them back together.
“I liked to open up electric toy cars and clocks. After putting them back together, I would go to my father and say, ‘I have enough parts to build another clock!’” Rodriguez said. “The cars and clocks were puzzles.”
Originally from Colombia, Rodriguez is a graduate student at Texas A&M University and a graduate research assistant at Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI), where she has worked since 2016 on the Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program (TAAP).
TAAP is a U.S. Geological Survey project that was created by the U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Act of 2006 to conduct binational scientific research on transboundary aquifers and address water issues in border communities. Rodriguez’s master’s thesis, which is about the Allende-Piedras Negras Aquifer, is based on her TAAP work.
Before coming to TWRI, Rodriguez received her bachelor’s degree in geology from the National University of Colombia. After graduating, she worked for an oil company doing seismic acquisition, which uses vibrations from heavy truck-mounted vibration devices to create images of underground fluid and gas.
After 10 years working on seismic acquisition, Rodriguez missed academia. In spring of 2016, she joined Texas A&M University’s Water Management and Hydrological Science graduate program. Initially, she wanted to relate her master’s thesis to her seismic acquisition work, comparing the impacts of natural processes versus seismic acquisition on aquifers.
But in Rodriguez’s first year, TWRI senior research scientist Dr. Rosario Sanchez reached out to her about helping with TAAP. Studying transboundary aquifers is complicated: Mexico and the United States use different languages and measurement units in their research, and the countries’ shared aquifers vary in their geology, environmental conditions, regulations and usage. Rodriguez’s extensive knowledge of geology and GIS, as well as her ability to speak Spanish, made her ideal for navigating those complications.
With TAAP, Rodriguez found herself working on a new kind of puzzle. The United States defines aquifers based on their geological boundaries, while Mexico defines aquifers based on county political boundaries. Properly studying the aquifers — and ensuring nobody over-pumps them — required matching up the aquifers from each side of the border.
“We needed to find the same methodology for both sides. Otherwise it’s like comparing grapes with apples,” Rodriguez said. “We matched up aquifers for all the border between Texas and Mexico.”
Sometimes, the trouble lay not just in matching up maps but in whether to call aquifers transboundary at all.
This was the case with the Allende-Piedras Negras Aquifer, which Rodriguez did her master’s thesis on. She has been working on the Allende-Piedras Negras Aquifer for several years now; she speaks with casual affection about it, saving words by calling it “my aquifer” instead of saying the whole name.
When Laura Rodriguez Lozada was a child, she loved taking things apart. She would distill things down to their basic components and figure out how to piece them back together.
“I liked to open up electric toy cars and clocks. After putting them back together, I would go to my father and say, ‘I have enough parts to build another clock!’” Rodriguez said. “The cars and clocks were puzzles.”
Originally from Colombia, Rodriguez is a graduate student at Texas A&M University and a graduate research assistant at Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI), where she has worked since 2016 on the Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program (TAAP).
TAAP is a U.S. Geological Survey project that was created by the U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Act of 2006 to conduct binational scientific research on transboundary aquifers and address water issues in border communities. Rodriguez’s master’s thesis, which is about the Allende-Piedras Negras Aquifer, is based on her TAAP work.
Before coming to TWRI, Rodriguez received her bachelor’s degree in geology from the National University of Colombia. After graduating, she worked for an oil company doing seismic acquisition, which uses vibrations from heavy truck-mounted vibration devices to create images of underground fluid and gas.
After 10 years working on seismic acquisition, Rodriguez missed academia. In spring of 2016, she joined Texas A&M University’s Water Management and Hydrological Science graduate program. Initially, she wanted to relate her master’s thesis to her seismic acquisition work, comparing the impacts of natural processes versus seismic acquisition on aquifers.
But in Rodriguez’s first year, TWRI senior research scientist Dr. Rosario Sanchez reached out to her about helping with TAAP. Studying transboundary aquifers is complicated: Mexico and the United States use different languages and measurement units in their research, and the countries’ shared aquifers vary in their geology, environmental conditions, regulations and usage. Rodriguez’s extensive knowledge of geology and GIS, as well as her ability to speak Spanish, made her ideal for navigating those complications.
With TAAP, Rodriguez found herself working on a new kind of puzzle. The United States defines aquifers based on their geological boundaries, while Mexico defines aquifers based on county political boundaries. Properly studying the aquifers — and ensuring nobody over-pumps them — required matching up the aquifers from each side of the border.
“We needed to find the same methodology for both sides. Otherwise it’s like comparing grapes with apples,” Rodriguez said. “We matched up aquifers for all the border between Texas and Mexico.”
Sometimes, the trouble lay not just in matching up maps but in whether to call aquifers transboundary at all.
This was the case with the Allende-Piedras Negras Aquifer, which Rodriguez did her master’s thesis on. She has been working on the Allende-Piedras Negras Aquifer for several years now; she speaks with casual affection about it, saving words by calling it “my aquifer” instead of saying the whole name.
