Projects and Initiatives
Research Projects:
Water Smart Border Regions
Transborder watersheds are focal points in intergovernmental relations between countries relying on them to mark their territorial reach and/or sharing their resources for consumptive, productive or ecological purposes. As a result, most transborder watersheds are highly regulated natural systems managed through governance structures designed to safeguard the national interest by prioritizing resource allocation and territorial integrity. This project will collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data needed to explore the role of different institutional and organizational regimes and collaborative networks in shaping adaptive and integrative management of watersheds in the US-Mexico, Spain-Portugal, and Chile-Peru border regions. We sustain that the adoption of adaptive and integrative approaches among water managers is critically influenced by the interaction of institutional factors and the character of regional networks fostering knowledge exchange and the use of non-conventional water management tools. In particular, the analysis of transborder watershed governance structures and practices in the three regions will focus on identifying the drivers and challenges in accepting and applying nature-based solutions to foster adaptation to climate change. Following the frameworks proposed by the OECD (2018 and 2020), the project will evaluate watershed governance in terms of achieving integration, innovation, and responding effectively to different water stakeholder views.
Team: Francisco Lara (ASU), Enrique Varela (UVigo), and Julia Wurm (ASU)
Gestión integrada de aguas transfonterizas: Retos y alternativas para el Río Santa Cruz
Desde 1951, las aguas residuales de Nogales, Sonora y Nogales, Arizona son tratadas por una planta financiada conjuntamente por Mexico y los Estados Unidos y localizada 20 kilómetros al norte de la línea divisoria internacional. El efluente de la planta ha sido desde su construcción una fuente importante de recursos renovables para los diversos usos de agua existentes en el Rio Santa Cruz. Las ciudades de Sonora y Arizona, como muchas otras ciudades en Mexico y Estados Unidos, han aceptado desde hace años que la única forma de aumentar el suministro de agua es reciclando y reusando el agua residual. La expansión de la demanda provocada por el crecimiento de la población y la economía en conjunto con patrones de precipitación crecientemente inciertos como resultado del cambio climático elevan el valor estratégico del agua tratada como fuente alternativa de agua para usos domésticos y productivos. ¿Qué pueden hacer Ambos Nogales para capturar al menos una porción de ese valor y usarlo para apoyar el desarrollo estrategias e infraestructura para el manejo sustentable del agua?
Team: Francisco Lara (ASU)
Children’s Experience with Climate Change in Ambos Nogales: Understanding vulnerability, health risks, and resilience
This study aims to understand the impacts of seasonal flooding and SSOs on young people (10-19 years old) of Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico. Young people are underrepresented in climate change literature despite being disproportionately affected by climate-related events, being highly vulnerable to flooding, and possessing experiential knowledge that can inform disaster management and health policies.Numerous intersecting characteristics are associated with youth climate vulnerability, including social class, health status, information access, and risk exposure. Depending on which side of the border they live, play, or learn, youth’s exposure to risk and life experiences vary and are typically bifurcated along a south-north axis.
For transborder youth, those crossing the border constantly, life experiences and risks are transposed by the border. Through focus groups and in-depth, semi-structured interviews, the project will document flooding impacts, examine the role of knowledge and lived experience in attitudinal and actionable engagement with climate change, and identify coping and adaptation practices among a highly vulnerable group.
Team: Hilda Garcia (PI, COLEF), Aminata Kilongo (UofA), Francisco Lara (ASU), and Adriana Zuniga (UofA)
Sustainable Strategies for Stormwater and Sanitary Sewer Overflows in Ambos Nogales
The purpose of this project is to plan, design, and advance a Green/Gray Infrastructure approach for long-term reduction and control of transboundary flows during wet weather in Ambos Nogales. The project modeled flood mitigation alternatives for Ambos Nogales based on rainfall/runoff modeling and land suitability analysis; produce a portfolio of localized landscape designs as part of an Ambos Nogales GI binational network; identified institutional barriers to sustainable urban stormwater management; and evaluated strategies enabling local capacity needed to engage the community in sustainable stormwater management practices on both sides of the border.
Team: Alma Anides, (UofA), Hilda García (COLEF), Margaret García (ASU), Francisco Lara (PI, ASU), Gabriel Montemayor (UArkansas), Laura Norman (USGS), Adriana Zuniga (UofA).
Economic impacts of Covid-19 in the Arizona-Sonora Border Region
The COVID-19 global pandemic resulted in border closures causing the disruption of consumption and production markets that affected border economies. This project used a survey to collect data about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemics on businesses along the US-Mexico border.
Team: Grupo Interdiscplinario de Investigación (GIDI)
Cross-border governance
This project studies border regions in the context of globalization and recent shifts in border management in North America, Europe and Latin America. With the support of CONACYT, an international network of researchers uses a comparative approach in order to glimpse the future of borders in the XXI century.
Team: Pablo Wong (CIAD) and Rosio Barajas (COLEF)
Initiatives:
Border Thinkers
This project explores the evolution and future of border studies through a two-fold methodological approach. First, we will interview a group of border thinkers who are active in the field and are known for their long-term commitment to producing theoretical and empirical knowledge that has deepened the understanding of borders and border-related processes. By accessing the perspectives of those who have contributed to the establishment and consolidation of border studies as a legitimate academic enterprise, we aim to understand how this group of border scholars uses the idea and reality of borders to analyze social, cultural, and spatial processes and how its conceptualization has changed as a result of the evolution of the field.
Secondly, a literature scan will be conducted to map the field’s structure, dynamics, and configuration. The scan will provide an additional perspective on the epistemological and methodological shifts within border studies in recent decades. The result of these two methods will be synthesized in a paper identifying and analyzing major research trends and discussing the future configuration of border studies as an evolving field of inquiry.
Team: Francisco Lara (ASU) and Julia Wurm (ASU)
