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.
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 Nada through March? drought shrinks, and rain bombs in the Hill Country
Drought conditions (D1–D4) decreased to 30% of the state from 39% of the state four weeks ago (and is surely lower after the early July rain bombs); statewide reservoir storage increased to 80% full up from 78% 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 recent rains in the Hill Country are not as rare as you might think.
think+water: Cities sinking, lakes sedimenting, and lower albedo’ing
This month, Dr. Robert E. Mace explores academic publications covering land subsidence in surprising Texan cities, sedimentation’s effects on reservoir firm yields, and low planetary albedo’s connection to aerosols and increased temperatures.
outlook+water: La Nada settles in, drought contracts (but is expected to remain), and hurricanes expected to be active
Drought conditions (D1–D4) decreased to 39% of the state from 53% of the state four weeks ago; statewide reservoir storage increased to 77.7% full, up from 77.2% four weeks ago and about 7 percentage points below normal for this time of year. La Niña remains in neutral conditions, which are favored through December (with a hint of La Niña this winter). Drought is expected to remain over the next 3 months where it exists. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects an active hurricane season.
think+water: Detention basins, well integrity, and AI-driven flood statistics
This month, Dr. Robert E. Mace explores academic publications covering the role detention basins play in protecting groundwater, contributing factors in well integrity failures, and AI’s data-driven probabilistic flood mapping.