Topic: Water Availability and Supply (14 page document) Our participants

1. Topic: Water Availability and Supply (14 page document) Our participants

2. Questions: • What are the major research question on this topic area? • Ground water and surface water interactions. • The water balance and water demands determination needs to be addressed into the research question to resolve at the border region • We need better methodologies for estimates along the two contries and sharing this estimates with the counterparts. • We need to specify a definition of drought, not just a political one but an academic an scientific one agreed by all interested parties. Eventhough this definition may evolve as conditions do. It is dynamic in nature and may be defined in these terms. It may include research already done in Evapotranspiration, Palmer drought conditions, and other metrics. • How do you bring togeter some binational regions with others when one region may be estimating factors while other ones are masuring the same factors? • Delineation of transboundary watersheds and aquifers at enhanced scales instead of “straight lines” are important topics for any kind of studies.

3. What binacional data are needed to conduct research on this question? • Define/agree on common standrads of determination based on geographic areas or ID or municipalities due to its relativity to the water sector (eg industrial, domestic, environmental etc…) • Reservoir levels, aquifer levels, flows • Evapotranspiration • Water demands from irrigation districts, environment and population centers • Soil classification based on texture for the border region, and water holding characteristics (hydric vs. non-hydric) • Consider the environment as a water user and convey this so the public can visulize the issue on the water balance

4. What scale issues are involved in this research area? • In order for us to have a way to exchange information, we have to establish minimums of accuracy, availability, delimitations, standards, methods of measurement, methods to determine estimates, and minimums of issues, within the limits of our own institutions understanding that each institution has its own regulations. • We need to identify and secure funding for transboundary monitoring networks that share common standards (bilingual documentation, units and methods). • We need to find our common ground, our minimum agreed upon standards. • We need to find our minimum common denominator in terms of scale (global, regional, local or in other terms, Federal, State and county/municipal). • Studies and funding should expand into rural areas at the same level as urban issues have been explored.

5. What progress has occurred to date, and what has made this successful? • Santa Cruz and San Pedro as well as the North American Moonsoon program • WEAP project on the Rio Bravo-Rio Grande watershed • The border environmental health initiative has been succesfull sharing information • The Texas-Mexico border lands information center has been sharing information for the last 10 years operating on soft money • Academic efforts such as the Texas A&M, ITESM, NMSU, UACJ, UTEP, UofT-Austin, ASU, and others have succesfully shared data to some degree since some efforts have been more succesfull than others. • For data sharing flexibility may be more important than formality and protocol, at a certain level, specialy if you need it fast. • Personal contacts are some times more important than official channels and this has been driven the sharing of information