Running

head: Annotated Bibliography 1

Annotated Bibliography

Isaac Lara

University of Texas at El Paso

 Annotated Bibliography 2

Dewals, B., & Fournier, M. (Eds.). (2013). Transboundary water management in a changing

climate. Leiden, The Netherlands: CRC Press/Balkema.

Dewals (2013) insisted that the current hydraulic modeling for the Meuse basin and some

local tributaries needed to be reevaluated considering the current change in climate change

that poses a higher risk of flooding. Dewals questioned if the current flood management

systems in Europe are truly providing safety for the population and their goods with the

flood risks becoming more of an issue due to climate change. To support his theory, Dewals

used the published work of Van Alphen (2009), Becker (2007), and Van Pelt (2011), to

highlight the need for more uniform approaches in flood risk assessments, implement flood

management issues, and what to do when the river basin becomes full after capturing too

much rainwater.

Dewals thesis that local tributaries need to be reevaluated considering the change in climate

that has altered the previously assessed risk for flooding was extremely useful because it

shed light on the difficult problem of different ways that water must be managed, when we

think about water management the first thing in our minds is water scarcity but some places

have to worry about the opposite problem of having to much water and how that water can

be dealt with.

Garibay, L. Y. (2015). New water resources engineering management track at UTEP. Retrieved

from http://engineering.utep.edu/announcement071715.htm

Garibay (2015) demonstrated that through students seeking an education, it is a great

advantage to reach out to the younger generation through clubs and organizations that work
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on educating them in order to understand and manage resources in a water scarce world so

that they may take action and come up with a solution using modern technology. Garibay

reminded us that despite living in a wealthy country, there are people all around the world

who need help getting clean drinking water and that by taking advantage of our wealth and

education in the United States, we can help find a solution to this issue. Garibay compiled

evidence through his previous work experience serving on the El Paso Water Utilities Public

Service board for 24 years, interviewing Richard Schoephoerster who is the dean of the

college of engineering, and interviewing the new leader of this program (WREM), Ivonne

Santiago.

These findings somewhat connected with Walton (1970) who insisted that in order for us to

be able to really quantize the amount of water in an aquifer we would have to use

mathematical and technological innovations, Garibay suggested that by pushing todays

youth and educate them about the importance of water they can come up with new

innovative ways to solve the water issue.

Gleick, P. H. (1998). Water in crisis: Paths to sustainable water use. 8(3) 10.1890/1051-

0761(1998)008 Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/1051-

0761(1998)008[0571:WICPTS]2.0.CO;2/full

Gleick (1998) suggested that we implement new principles such as guaranteeing access to a

minimum amount of clean water in order to maintain human health, ecosystems and areas in

order to maintain a long-term water management and sustainability. Gleick reminded us

about the long-term goal of having clean and accessible water for not only the current

population of the Earth, but for generations to come. In making his case, Gleick referred to
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the “Seven Sustainability Criteria”, the “Basic Water Requirement (BWR)” and

“backcasting” policies to display the basic needs and rights that humans deserve along with

the environment that they live in.

By focusing on the problem of water being a basic human right that everyone should have

access to, Gleick overlooked the deeper problem where the water will come from or who

will assist with these issues, there are several methods that can be adopted in order to make

this resource more accessible to people, but in order to adopt these methods they involve

manpower and financial support in order to achieve.

Goodwin, W. (2011). Recycled water quenches San Antonio's thirst. NPR Retrieved

from https://www.npr.org/2011/10/01/140937267/recycled-water-quenches-san-antonios-

thirst

Goodwin (2011) urged us to be very self aware in the amount of water we use each day by

highlighting the court case between the Sierra Club and San Antonio in which the Sierra

Club sued the city for pumping 5 billion gallons of water a day from the Edwards aquifer to

fill the River Walk that almost made the blinded salamander species go extinct. Goodwyn

questioned whether the ways that we used our water were really worth the long-term

consequences that face us if we continue to recklessly use the water we currently have

stored. He based his claim on the court case between the Sierra Club and San Antonio, an

interview with Steve Clouse, the chief operating officer of the San Antonio Water System,

along with an interview with Karen Guz who is the water system’s director of conservation.
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Goodwin’s thesis where he questioned whether the way we use our water was really worth

the long-term consequences was extremely useful because it shed insight on the difficult

problem of who should be in charge of water resource management, if somebody is making

these decisions that are ultimately harming our environment should they really be making

these decisions, if not who?

König, L. F., & Weiss, J. L. (Eds.). (2008). Groundwater modeling, management, and

contamination. New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

König (2008) suggested that despite the inefficiency of mapping aquifers and groundwater

resources we must take an “integrated approach”. König observed that because the lack of

communication between all the various institutions and the stakeholders there is not a clear

vision on how to allocate the resource responsibly, in order to correct this issue we would

have to fix the fragmentation that exists within the water authorities. König compiled in an

anthology various solutions from various scholars, backed up by years of his personal

research, along with the help of Weiss.

Although König may seem trivial, it was in fact crucial in terms of today’s concern over

how different groups have contrasting views on how water should be allocated, by reducing

the gap from these different parties through better communication it can help mitigate the

differences and aid in coming in an overall consensus that will better represent everyone’s

ideal way of how to use water responsibly.

Koundouri, P. (Ed.). (2011). Water resources allocation. New York, NY: Springer.
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Koundouri (2011) claimed that the water management on the island of Cypress is a

troublesome issue with increased tourism considering the limited availability of getting

fresh water to the island and the threat of salt water invading their current fresh water

aquifers. Koundouri observed the increased amount of tourism and the population growth

rates would deplete the available fresh water on the island unless the government develops a

new water management plan. Her argument is based on the Agricultural Statistics of the

Republic of Cypress, the Statistical Service of the Republic of Cypress, and Socratous

Management of water in Cypress.

Koundori’s position that the government should come up with a new water management

plan was valid, yet Goodwin’s argument about how water is ultimately used sheds light on

who is the ideal candidate to make these choices, especially since in the case that Goodwin

was looking at involved the government deciding how the water would be used.

Lewis, J., & Liljedahl, B. (2010). Groundwater surveys in developing regions.3 Retrieved

from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.4137/ASWR.S6053

Lewis and Liljedahl insisted that we prepare our framers and their lands to face any number

of weather occurrences - which mainly focus droughts – so that we can be ready to face the

social, biological, and economic impacts that follow. Lewis and Lijedhal reminded us of the

Dust Bowl that farmers had to face along with the stress that the drought brought and how

we need to be prepared to avoid these impacts when we face another severe drought. They

based their claim on the 1976 published essay, “The Great American Desert in the American

Mind”, on the 1981 published book, “Misconceptions, Misinterpretations, and

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Misrepresentations of the Behavioral Approaches in the Human Geography” and the 1973

published article, “Landscape Meteorology in the Plains Area”.

Lewis and Lijedhals view that we need to be prepared and take certain precautions during

another drought is flawed, as recent research, such as the one by Sedlak, shows that

droughts can be completely avoided by adopting different methods of water harvesting that

are extremely cost effective and environmentally friendly.

Maganda, C. (2003). The politics of regional water management: The case of Guanajuato,

Mexico. The journal of environment & development, 12(4), 389. Retrieved

from https://www.jstor.org/stable/44319662?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Maganda (2003) claimed that planning is necessary to help ensure that extraction and

distribution of water resources within the social context of growth is efficient and will last

for generations to come. Maganda questioned whether the current leaders in Mexico are

planning accordingly to the expected population growth and how we can get our politicians

to want to take on a larger role in water conservation. His argument is based on Luis Aboites

bibliography on the problem of water in Mexico in the 1990’s, Blakies 1983,

“Interpretations of Calamity”, and on the arguments of Ulrich Beck who is a German

sociologist.

On the one hand, Maganda was correct to question if his nations current leaders are taking

certain precautions to plan for future population growth so that everyone has a enough water

to go around. On the other hand, however Maganda needs to question if the nations officials

are the appropriate party to determine how the water is restricted/distributed, as depicted by
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Goodwin political officials are not always the best people to ultimately decide how water

will be used and hence it might be useful to get other environmental groups or scholars

involved that know what kind of repercussions certain actions will have on the environment.

David Sedlak: 4 ways we can avoid a catastrophic drought. Sedlak, D. (Director).

(2015).[Video/DVD] Retrieved

from https://www.ted.com/talks/david_sedlak_4_ways_we_can_avoid_a_catastrophic_drou

ght#t-805106

Sedlak (2015) emphasized that he is confident by adopting different methods storm

harvesting, water re-usage, water desalination, and water conservation we can solve our lack

of urban water problems. Sedlak reminded us that with the shifting climate patterns in the

world sources of water that used to be deemed abundant in certain areas may find reservoirs

dry and groundwater aquifers depleted. Sedlak concluded that by using these different

methods it would greatly reduce the stress being applied to our planet, based on research he

conducted some of the methods are more effective than others but even if one or two of the

methods were adopted in different cities the risk of drying up sources would be reduced, he

also supports his claims by using data from cities water management services.

Sedlak matters because he presented innovative ways to solve the urban water problem by

implementing old methods in new ways to overcome this problem, his suggestions help

overcome a lot of the political red tape problems or monetary costs since a lot of the

methods are natural.

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Shelley, K. (1991). University cooperates with El Paso's water regulations. Prospector, pp. 4.

Retrieved from https://theprospector.newspaperarchive.com/el-paso-prospector/1991-10-

08/page-4/

Shelley (1991) agreed that El Paso City Councils methods to conserve water by scheduling

watering days for everyone and by accessing higher rates for careless water use. Shelley

noted that the changes presented by city council are of paramount importance if we plan on

making the water supply of the city available to future generations. In making her case

Shelley conducted interviews with Raul Carrasco, who was the superintendent of buildings

and grounds management of the University, as well as Juan Ontiveros director of facility

services, and John Sutton water conservation manager with El Paso Water Utilities.

Shelley surely is right about the importance of taking certain measures like watering days

because, as she might not have been aware, recent studies have shown, as presented by

Sedlak, that most of the water usage happens outdoors but what the research supports is that

our lawns and plants can survive with half of the amount of water and still have a nice green

landscape appropriate for the are we live in.

Sheng, Z., Mace, R. E., & Fahy, M. P. (2001). The Hueco Bolson: An aquifer at the crossroads.

Retrieved from http://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/hueco_bolson.htm

Sheng (2001) claimed that the increase in population size is decreasing the amount of water

in the Hueco Bolson aquifer that has a low recharge rate considering it’s location in the

Chihuahua Desert. Sheng questioned whether the management strategies that protect the

aquifer will help the aquifer survive past the year 2025 so that it can continue providing
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fresh water to El Paso, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juarez. In making his argument based on

information gathered at the El Paso Research and Extension Center, Texas Development

Board, and from the El Paso Water Utilities.

These findings connected with Turner, who also argued that the increase in population and

the slow recharge rate of the Hueco Bolson aquifer made him question management of said

aquifer and plans in place to help the aquifer recharge at a faster rate to make sure that

whatever was available for the generations to come.

Sultana, F. (2013). Water, technology, and development: Transformations of development

technonatures in changing waterscapes. Environment and Planning Development: Society

and Space, 31, 337. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1068/d20010

Sultana (2013) claimed that the water situation in the southern Bengal Delta was inhumane

in that the local people suffered with having to find fresh water that does not contain

arsenic. Sultana reminded us that fresh water is such a privilege in the first world and that

we need to spend more time helping third world countries have access to clean water – a

basic human right. She based her claim on personal experiences when she spoke to locals in

the Bengal Delta, a workshop held by Ahmed in 2002 about the Arsenic mitigation in

Bangladesh and on a journal by Kaika 2000, “Fetishing the modern city: the phantasmagoria

of urban technological networks”.

At first glance Sultana appeared to have the same ideas as Gleick, but on closer inspection,

Sultana just claims that water should be a basic human right while Gleick suggests that

everyone should be guaranteed access to a minimum amount of water while it might sound
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the same, Sultana looks at the reality and urges people in the first world to spend more time

helping make water more accessible to the third world while Gleick does not.

Turner, C., Hamlyn, E., & Ibáñez Hernández, O. The challenge of balancing water supply and

demand in the Paso del Norte. Retrieved

from https://faculty.utep.edu/LinkClick.aspx?link=the+Challenge+of+Balancing+Water+Su

pply+and+Demand+in+the+El+Paso+del+Norte.pdf&tabid=19444&mid=43213

Turner argued that the increase in population in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez is draining the

Hueco Bolson aquifer at an alarming rate and he then gave us an outlook at different future

scenarios depending on the action we choose to take on conserving the remaining water in

the Hueco Bolson aquifer. Turner questioned whether the current policies we have in place

will prove to be sustainable enough to keep up the water tables and have enough fresh water

for future generations. In making his case, he referenced the 2002 journal “Growth Requires

a New Water Fee”, referred to the El Paso Water Resource Management Plan and pulled

information from the “Regional Geographic Information System to Support Water Planning

in the Paso del Norte Region” file.

Although Sheng stated that with current policies the water in the Hueco Bolson would last

us until the year 2025, it must be pointed out that according to Turner proposed different

scenarios in aiding to conserve the water that is remaining in the aquifer to last longer, it

might be possible that with the ideas presented by Sheng and Turner the aquifer can last way

beyond the predicted depletion date to serve our successors.

Walton, W. C. (1970). Groundwater resource evaluation. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

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Walton (1970) insisted that water levels can be regulated by first quantizing the amount of

water in an aquifer by using different mathematical and technological innovations and once

the levels have been identified that information can then be used to manage the resource in

the most appropriate manner. Walton noted that it is very difficult to try to map/model an

aquifer because most of the time their guess ends up being incorrect but if we do not truly

know how much water there is then how can we regulate it. Walton tabulated data from

research he had conducted, and his argument is mostly based on his experience in the field.

Walton was right that the use of math and science is important in order to truly quantify how

much water is inside an aquifer he seems on more dubious ground when he claimed that

water management is not effective unless we really know how much water is located inside

the aquifer was flawed.