A lock-in Transboundary Water Management Regime: the case of the Rio Grande/Bravo Basin

The study of the Rio Grande/Bravo (RGB) Basin water management demonstrates how the United States (US) and Mexico have consolidated a transboundary water regime based on groundwater sharing. Despite the lack of water management integration and common sustainable practices, both countries have succeeded in sharing groundwater resources in the past, but not for long. The transboundary water regime in RGB Basin is based on fixed groundwater extractions which do not match the ever increasing water demands and current adjustments for human and environmental needs, and the potential future natural conditions for a sustainable river system. The aim of this paper is to discuss that despite the fact that the US – Mexico water regime has given good results in terms of water allocation; the system is imperfect due to a lack of consideration of current and future environmental, economic and socio-political drivers, as well as seeing the system as a whole, promoting a conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater. Findings of this study are based on a qualitative interview study conducted with stakeholders in the RGB Basin and an analysis of historic water demands. Our sample included 54 respondents across the basin, they addressed a multitude of concerns in the context of environmental problems, fragmented water management, and citizen participation. This presentation elaborates on three key questions: (1) How the RGB water allocation regime can last with fixed water demands and without adapting to current changes in natural conditions? (2) What is the impact of this regime in the river ecosystem? (3) Does the RGB Basin water regime reflect a lock in situation that is blocking changes toward new water management practices? If so, how stakeholders can promote changes in the decision-making process? The situation of the RGB water regime can be explained through the concept of long-term predominance which results in a path-dependent process. This process helps to address sustained persistence and processes of institutions leading to a lock-in state. The RGB water regime needs major transformations, specifically in considering environmental, economical, and socio-political variables in groundwater management across the river basin, as well as the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater. A list of recommendations to enhance and optimize current water management regime is presented with a discussion of possibilities of dissolving binational organizational paths

Numerical performance of incomplete factorizations for 3D transient convection-diffusion problems

Many environmental processes can be modelled as transient convection–diffusion–reaction problems. This is the case, for instance, of the operation of activated-carbon filters. For industrial applications there is a growing demand for 3D simulations, so efficient linear solvers are a major concern. We have compared the numerical performance of two families of incomplete Cholesky factorizations as preconditioners of conjugate gradient iterations: drop-tolerance and prescribed-memory strategies. Numerical examples show that the former are computationally more efficient, but the latter may be preferable due to their predictable memory requirements.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Extending Water Resources Performance Metrics to River Ecosystems

A persistent challenge in integrated water management is the ability to accurately evaluate human and ecological tradeoffs. Two-dimensional (2D) hydraulic models are frequently used to evaluate water management alternatives concerning aquatic species physical habitat needs or preferences. Recent studies have assessed the timing or duration of suitable habitat conditions, but no standardized approach exists to integrate and interpret ecohydraulic model outputs within a water management framework. Such an approach is needed to maximize the information obtained from model outputs and to facilitate communication between river scientists and water managers. This study presents a general framework to aggregate and summarize 2D hydraulic model outputs by adapting the traditional water resources metrics of reliability, resilience, vulnerability, and sustainability. Just as these metrics are typically used to quantify distinct aspects of water resources performance, applying them to ecohydraulic conditions facilitates interpretation of ecological performance and human-ecosystem water management tradeoffs. This paper examines the utility and limitations of the proposed framework and metrics in a simple application to fall-run Chinook salmon in a typical Mediterranean-montane stream

Existing opportunities to adapt the Rio Grande/Bravo Basin Water Resources Allocation Framework

The study of the Rio Grande/Bravo (RGB) Basin water allocation demonstrates how the United States (U.S.) and Mexico have consolidated a transboundary framework based on water sharing. However, the water supply no longer meets the ever-increasing demand for water or the expectations of different stakeholders. This paper explores opportunities for an enhanced management regime that will address past problems and better examine how to balance demands for a precious resource and environmental needs. Based on an overview of the RGB Basin context and the water allocation framework, as well as a discussion on stakeholders’ ability to achieve solutions, this paper explores three key questions: (1) Does the current binational water allocation framework meet current and future human and environmental needs? (2) How can the U.S.-Mexico water allocation framework be adapted to balance social and environmental water demands so it can support and preserve the RGB Basin ecosystem? (3) What are the main opportunities to be explored for expanding the U.S.-Mexico water resources allocation framework? The U.S.-Mexico water resources framework is subject to broad interpretation and may be adapted to the circumstances taking the fullest advantage of its flexibility. Policy recommendations highlight the existing flexibility of the binational framework, the potential to move forward with an ad hoc institutional arrangement, and the creation of political will to achieve change through stakeholders recommendations

A Novel Dataset for Financial Education Text Simplification in Spanish

Text simplification, crucial in natural language processing, aims to make texts more comprehensible, particularly for specific groups like visually impaired Spanish speakers, a less-represented language in this field. In Spanish, there are few datasets that can be used to create text simplification systems. Our research has the primary objective to develop a Spanish financial text simplification dataset. We created a dataset with 5,314 complex and simplified sentence pairs using established simplification rules. We also compared our dataset with the simplifications generated from GPT-3, Tuner, and MT5, in order to evaluate the feasibility of data augmentation using these systems. In this manuscript we present the characteristics of our dataset and the findings of the comparisons with other systems. The dataset is available at Hugging face, saul1917/FEINA

Genotype x environment interaction among five rapeseed genotype in two types of soil of La Araucanía Region, Chile

El raps canola (Brassica napus L.) representa una alternativa para diversificar la producción adaptándose a las condiciones de suelo y clima de la zona centro sur del país. Se estableció un ensayo para evaluar el comportamiento de cinco genotipos de raps de primavera en dos tipos de suelos de la región de La Araucanía (Andisol y Ultisol). El modelo experimental correspondió a un factorial 5x2 que consistió en cinco genotipos y dos tipos de suelo. Las variables a evaluar en el estudio fueron rendimiento del grano y contenido de aceite de la semilla. Los resultados mostraron efectos significativos de la interacción genotipo x ambiente (suelo) para estos parámetros. El mayor rendimiento en el Ultisol correspondió a los genotipos ‘Ability’ y ‘Sonja’, mientras en el Andisol, correspondió a los genotipos ‘Gladiador’, ‘Salsa’ y ‘Hyola 618’. El mayor porcentaje de aceite en el grano correspondió a los genotipos ‘Ability’ y ‘Sonja’, en el Ultisol; y a ‘Gladiador’, ‘Salsa’ y ‘Hyola 618’, en el Andisol. Los resultados del análisis combinado de varianza para el rendimiento por planta de los cinco genotipos de raps y los dos ambientes (tipos de suelo) confirmaron la existencia de efecto de interacción genotipo x suelo

Rediseño del layout y de los procesos de almacenamiento, recepción y despachos en la empresa TASA

El trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo diseñar un plan estratégico que ayude a la empresa Delta/Signal a lograr la sostenibilidad y competitividad necesarias para hacer frente a un entorno de negocios dominado por el cambio tecnológico y la agresividad de los competidores. Delta/Signal es una empresa global dedicada a la producción y comercialización de piezas y partes de automóviles que son vendidos a grandes fabricantes automotrices alrededor del mundo. La empresa posee fábricas, oficinas comerciales y representaciones en todos los continentes. El proceso de análisis inicia con la revisión del desempeño de la compañía en el período 2008-2012; durante este tiempo la empresa tuvo un moderado crecimiento sustentado en el uso de patentes y tecnologías antiguas. La empresa decidió usar una estrategia de segmentación indiferenciada, ofreciendo todos los productos posibles a todos los segmentos. En su punto más crítico la empresa llegó a tener una gama de más de dos mil productos. Dado el repentino cambio tecnológico ocurrido luego de la crisis financiera que afectó de manera especial a la industria automotriz, surgieron muchas innovaciones que disminuyeron la cuota de mercado de la compañía, situación que obligó a la empresa a redefinir su estrategia. Sin embargo, los ejecutivos de Delta/Signal tomaron una medida contraproducente: usar una estrategia de liderazgo en costos para dirigir sus productos a un mercado de alto precio que exigía mucha tecnología y desempeño

COLLABORATIVE MODELING TO EVALUATE WATER MANAGEMENT SCENARIOS IN THE RIO GRANDE BASIN 1

ABSTRACT: This article describes the collaborative modeling process and the resulting water resources planning model developed to evaluate water management scenarios in the transboundary Rio Grande basin. The Rio Grande is a severely water stressed basin that faces numerous management challenges as it crosses numerous jurisdictional boundaries. A collaborative process was undertaken to identify and model water management scenarios to improve water supply for stakeholders, the environment, and international obligations of water delivery from Mexico to the United States. A transparent and open process of data collection, model building, and scenario development was completed by a project steering committee composed of university, nongovernmental, and governmental experts from both countries. The outcome of the process was a planning model described in this article, with data and operations that were agreed on by water planning officials in each country. Water management scenarios were created from stakeholder input and were modeled and evaluated for effectiveness with the planning model. (KEY TERMS: Rio Grande; decision support systems; planning; geographic information system; water resources management.

Cambio de uso de suelo y vegetación asociado a la carencia de servicios públicos y políticas públicas en Atoyatempan, Puebla

El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo analizar los cambios de uso de suelo en el municipio de Atoyatempan ocurridos en el período de 1993 a 2014, por medio de matrices de transición y cadenas de Márkov, estableciendo su permanencia o transición hacia otro uso de suelo, utilizando como base los mapas de uso de suelo y vegetación del Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI). También se precisan las regiones con presencia o no, de servicios públicos, por medio de las áreas de influencia para determinar la falta de servicios públicos, y su relación con la carencia de políticas públicas a través de un análisis bivariado, tomando como base la encuesta por conveniencia realizada a los pobladores. Los resultados muestran la transición de vegetación natural y la agricultura de temporal hacia el pastizal inducido y la agricultura de riego por las actividades de la ganadería. También se precisan las zonas con la falta de servicios públicos y su relación con carencia de políticas públicas, que permitirá desarrollar soluciones más eficientes para detener el deterioro del ambiente y mejorar la calidad de vida de los pobladores