This month, Dr. Robert E. Mace explores academic publications on connections between indigenous rock art and the Balcones Escarpment, freshwater inflows and estuarine health, and a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious acronym for pesticide identification methods.
Author: Robert Mace
Robert Mace is the Executive Director and Chief Water Policy Officer at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment and a Professor of Practice in the Department of Geography at Texas State University. Robert has over 30 years of experience in hydrology, hydrogeology, stakeholder processes, and water policy, mostly in Texas.
outlook+water: La Niña watch, drought improvements expected, the 20th warmest year (so far)
Drought conditions (D1–D4) increased to 20% of the state from 19% of the state four weeks ago; statewide reservoir storage decreased to 77.3% full from 78.7% four weeks ago, about 4 percentage points below normal for this time of year. We are under a La Niña Watch for the fall and winter. This is the 20th warmest year on record in Texas through July.
think+water: Measles in wastewater, flu alerts triggered by wastewater, and who pooped at the beach?
This month, Dr. Robert E. Mace explores academic publications on sequencing for measles detection in U.S. wastewater, the creation of a school-based virus alert system in Houston, and the identification of fecal contamination sources along the Texas Gulf Coast.
outlook+water: Massive rains in the Hill Country, drought improvement, but the Edwards is still in drought
Drought conditions (D1–D4) decreased to 19% of the state from 30% of the state four weeks ago; statewide reservoir storage decreased to 79% full from 80% four weeks ago, about 4 percentage points below normal for this time of year. The El Niño Southern Oscillation remains in neutral conditions, which are favored through March. The rainfalls we saw in the Hill Country were at least one in 1,000-year events.
think+water: Water and the White Shaman, biochar and cucumbers, and a pain in the ash
This month, Dr. Robert E. Mace explores academic publications covering water’s role in indigenous cosmology, biochar’s ability to boost saturated hydraulic conductivity, and an invasive beetle species wreaking havoc on ash tree populations.