The study area for this dissertation is the Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley (Valley). The overarching theme is water and includes regional water management, water management institutions, and water supply decision-making as it relates to community well-being and public health. The first essay provides a description of a control model developed for the management of a municipal water supply system in the context of public health and waterborne illnesses issues. The most beneficial disease-management strategy is found to depend on the community's levels of infected population, water services, and budget. The model is numerically parameterized using data drawn from Hidalgo County in the Valley. Greater capital depreciation rates and shorter planning horizons contribute to lower levels of community well-being, which is measured as the present value of damages from disease infection levels. Reductions in community well-being are greatest when greater capital depreciation rates are combined with shorter planning horizons. The second essay provides an overview of the organizations, institutions, policies, and geographic particulars of the region's water management system and the region's water market. Demand growth for potable water and a relatively-fixed supply of raw water are reflected in increasing prices for domestic, municipal, and industrial (DMI) water rights. The market is characterized by rising prices and the transfer of water from lower-value to higher-value uses. Some reasons for the market's functionality are due to minimal return flows to the Rio Grande (River) occurring throughout the Valley, and the monitoring and enforcement efforts of the Rio Grande Watermaster Program. The final essay is a presentation of a hydroeconomic model to study regional allocation of water resources across the municipal and agricultural sectors of several counties in the Valley. Results indicate that anticipated population growth will increase demand for municipal water and will motivate the transfer of water from the agricultural sector to the municipal sector and the further development of brackish desalination of groundwater. Population density scenarios indicate greater population density is associated with a greater level of agricultural production and reduced revenue to agriculture from land and water-right sales. On balance, climate change scenarios with population increases to 2060 are associated with fewer acres farmed, cropping pattern shifts to higher-value crops, and increasing irrigation requirements. Since the study area for this dissertation is encountering a variety of challenges that are related to environmental conditions, institutions, demographics, and health, this dissertation may provide guidance to the broader water-management community and to other locations, where these challenges are also occurring.

The processes controlling snowpack mass balance are highly variable in time and space, requiring remote sensing to observe regional processes and intensive field observations to observe hilislope-scale phenomena. This research aims to further understanding of the processes controlling snowpack mass balance through innovative applications of remotely sensed data and statistical interpolations of ground observations. Four advancements were obtained: 1) the sensitivity of regression tree snow distribution models to digital elevation data and independent variables was quanitified; 2) improved ability to upscale point snow water equivalent (SWE) measurements at snow telemetry (SNOTEL) stations was obtained by quantifying the small-scale SWE variability surrounding these stations; 3) spatially distributed snowmelt algorithms were improved by incorporating remotely sensed snow-surface albedo data into snowmelt modeling; and (4) the temporal and spatial continuity of regional-scale estimates of snow covered area (SCA) and SWE were improved by combining remotely sensed data and air temperature data to extend estimates beneath the cloud cover.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / China Area Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Published in cooperation with Arizona Water Commission and Office of Arid Lands Studies, University of Arizona. / Introduction: In many communities, irrigated agricultural areas exist within a few miles of the wastewater treatment plant of a large municipality. At such locations a dual transfer of water may be effected, in which the treated wastewater would be used for irrigation and the high quality irrigation water supply would in turn be shifted to the municipal system for domestic use. An investigation of the technical, economic, and legal aspects of such an exchange system has been completed recently, with the Tucson region as a case study. The research was done at the University of Arizona under an allotment grant from the Office of Water Resources Research, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Published in cooperation with Arizona Water Commission and Office of Arid Lands Studies, University of Arizona. / INTRODUCTION: Arid lands will undoubtedly experience increased energy stresses in the near future because of increasing internal populations and external energy appetites. Many arid lands are underlain by vast quantities of energy fuels, but geothermal energy is one of the few environmentally acceptable energy alternatives for arid regions based on criteria of water consumption, efficiency of energy production and pollution characteristics. This report summarizes the published findings of the authors' search of existing data related to Arizona geothermal resources and of geological investigations undertaken by them to provide a comprehensive guide for exploration and to suggest further studies.

Published in cooperation with Arizona Water Commission and Office of Arid Lands Studies, University of Arizona.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.