Photo by Michael Miller, Texas A&M AgriLife.
Peer-reviewed publications by TWRI and Texas A&M University System scientists
Advancing Multiple-Use Water Services for Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Co-authored by Matt Stellbauer, Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) research specialist, this study reviews multiple-use water services, or MUS, as an international development strategy. The researchers evaluated related peer-reviewed scholarship published between 1990 and 2023 to identify trends and quantified the most persistent barriers to scaling and institutionalizing MUS.
Relationship between low-level arsenic exposure in drinking water and kidney cancer risk in Texas: Texas A&M University School of Public Health researchers assessed the association between county-level drinking water arsenic levels and kidney cancer incidences using data from 240 counties in Texas. The results suggested that exposure to low levels of arsenic in drinking water may be associated with an increased risk of kidney cancer, and further study is needed.
Can household water sharing advance water security? An integrative review of water entitlements and entitlement failures: Water sharing is the non-market transfer of privately held water between households. Co-authored by TWRI’s Matt Stellbauer and Texas A&M researchers, this integrative review of empirical scholarship on household water sharing found that water sharing within established societal norms can bolster household water security, while water sharing outside of norms is an indicator of water insecurity.
Predicting the Yield Loss of Winter Wheat Due to Drought in the Llano Estacado Region of the United States Based on the Cultivar-Specific Sensitivity to Drought: Scientists at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center at Overton worked to develop the cultivar drought sensitivity (CDS) group-specific, ARID-based models for predicting the drought-induced yield loss of winter wheat in the Llano Estacado region in the southern United States by accounting for the phenological phase-specific sensitivity to drought. They identified yield models that performed reasonably well and could be useful for predicting drought-induced yield losses and scheduling irrigation allocation based on crop-specific drought sensitivity.
Reframing a Data Sharing Mechanism for the Riparian Nations of Helmand River Basin: Theory of Planned Behavior Is Revisited: Co-authored by Rosario Sanchez, Ph.D., TWRI senior research scientist, this research examined the challenges and potential opportunities of data and information exchange on the Helmand River, a drought-stricken river basin shared between upstream Afghanistan and downstream Iran.
Water-related research from universities around Texas
Geochemical evolution of municipal water in a natural hydrologic system and implications for urban watershed resilience: University of Texas at Austin scientists studied the evolution of Austin-area municipal water once it leaves the infrastructure and enters the natural hydrologic system as groundwater and/or surface water.
Modeling the Resilience Performance of Houston’s Wastewater Treatment Plant under Wet Weather Conditions: Co-authored by a Rice University scientist, this study used a robust modeling framework to analyze the resilience performance of a wastewater treatment plant in Houston, in response to storms of varying intensities. The results highlight the significant need to evaluate existing wastewater systems, they said, particularly in the context of evolving climate conditions and aging infrastructure.
