Search Results (115)

Communities across the Southwestern United States (US) and Northern Mexico are making critical decisions regarding how they create long-term water resilience, including by reducing water demand and diversifying water supplies in the face of scarcity. There are several emerging frameworks encouraging collaborative governance approaches to water scarcity, such as Collaborative Water Governance and Adaptive Water Governance; however, examples of ongoing implementation of these frameworks by local governments in academic literature are less prevalent. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by sharing case studies and practitioner recommendations resulting from Growing Water Smart (GWS)—a training and assistance program for local communities to conduct collaborative water resilience action planning across jurisdictional borders, as well as between the historically separated disciplines of water resources management and land use planning. This paper presents and assesses the GWS curriculum as a model for local, cooperative responses to water scarcity, grounded in Collaborative Water Governance, Adaptive Governance, and related frameworks. This paper utilizes primary GWS program documents, firsthand participant perspectives, and direct practitioner experiences to present three case studies of GWS communities working across disciplinary and jurisdictional borders: a regionally collaborative facilitation process and intergovernmental agreement regarding water exports in the San Luis Valley of Colorado; a regional GWS workshop and emerging county-wide convening of jurisdictions within the Verde Watershed of central Arizona; and binational collaboration across the US-Mexico border through a workshop between the cities of Douglas, Arizona and Agua Prieta, Sonora, resulting in a deepened understanding of shared effluent flows. Finally, this paper posits that the GWS model initiates more collaborative and informed decision-making, builds capacity for localities through the support of third-party conveners and facilitators, and maximizes the limited financial and human resources available to local jurisdictions—resulting in a valuable and replicable process to advance water resilience across disciplinary and jurisdictional borders. Full article

A widely reproduced error in hydrogeologic maps originated from a provisional delineation drawn in the mid-1990s to depict the southern extent of the Mesilla Bolson aquifer along the western margin of the El Paso–Juárez metropolitan area. The delineation was created solely to satisfy a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency contractual milestone during early binational groundwater inventory efforts and was never intended to represent a final hydrogeologic basin limit. Nevertheless, the outline persisted, became institutionalized in reports, models, management documents, and public imagery, and was ultimately labeled the “Mesilla/Conejos–Médanos Basin Transboundary Aquifer,” where it continues to be treated as a valid transboundary aquifer delineation. This paper documents the origin of the provisional delineation and proposes a revised delineation for the Mesilla/Conejos–Médanos Basin Transboundary Aquifer, based on internationally recognized definitions of transboundary aquifers and groundwater basins, including United Nations frameworks, and established scientific criteria. These criteria include basin-scale geologic and structural controls, hydrostratigraphic continuity, groundwater divides, and permeability contrasts at basin interfaces. Results indicate that the newly defined aquifer delineation falls within Mexico’s much larger administrative Acuífero Conejos–Médanos (0823), a unit that represents groundwater management jurisdiction in Mexico rather than solely a hydrogeologic basin. The proposed transboundary aquifer is defined on hydrogeological principles and does not coincide with either the administrative unit of Mexico or the historic provisional outline that has become widely used by multiple binational entities and by different experts in groundwater science. Full article

Background/Objectives: The implementation of COVID-19 vaccination in the United States has revealed substantial disparities driven by geography, socioeconomic conditions, and political ideology. This study examines the association between these factors and COVID-19 vaccination uptake across 360 counties in four U.S.–Mexico border states, characterized by distinct socio-political traits. Methods: Using county-level data, this study employed multivariable regression analysis and GIS mapping to assess the effects of income, education, employment, age, race, ethnicity, occupation, metropolitan status, border status, and political affiliation on Dose 1, Dose 2, and booster vaccination rates. Results: The analysis showed that Dose 1 vaccination rates were significantly higher in border counties and metropolitan areas. Democratic population share and per capita income were positively associated with vaccination uptake. Dose 2 vaccination rates exhibited patterns similar to those observed for Dose 1. Booster vaccination rates were positively associated with Democratic affiliation, the proportion of the population with at least a high school education, and the share of individuals aged 65 years and older. In contrast, unemployment rates were negatively associated with booster uptake. Racial and ethnic composition was also associated with vaccination outcomes: higher Black population shares were associated with lower Dose 1 vaccination rates, whereas higher Native American population shares were associated with higher vaccination rates. Booster uptake was higher with larger shares of the Asian population but slightly lower with larger shares of the White population. Conclusions: COVID-19 vaccination uptake in U.S.–Mexico border counties was associated with a complex interaction of geographic, socioeconomic, demographic, and political factors. These findings underscore the importance of targeted, context-specific public health strategies to reduce vaccination disparities and improve booster coverage in border regions. Full article

In 2024, the United States (US) and Mexico signed Minute 330, to address water scarcity in the Colorado River. Under Minute 330, Mexico committed to creating additional water savings through 2026, complementing conservation efforts by the US Lower Basin states during this period. In this paper, we examine the motivations behind Minute 330, its negotiations, and the state of its implementation to understand how it reflects the US–Mexico cooperative relationship amidst scarcity challenges in the basin. Our research takes a multi-method, qualitative approach that draws on semi-structured interviews with members of the Minute Negotiating Group from both countries and other interviewees with expertise on the post-2000 Colorado River Minute process from federal water agencies, NGOs, and universities, as well as members of US-state water agencies and Mexican water user leaders. We conclude that Minute 330 responded to water scarcity challenges in the basin that could not be addressed through prior minutes while setting an important precedent of cooperation and cross-border collaboration between the two countries amid unprecedented circumstances. These features take relevance in light of the post-2026 process and the need to develop additional regulations to manage the Colorado River both at the binational and the US national scale. Full article

Microplastics (MPs) have been detected in aquatic environments worldwide; however, freshwater systems remain underexplored. MPs’ presence has not been reported yet in the Río Bravo/Grande at the Mexico–United States border. In 2022 and 2023, water (30 L) and sediment (~500 g) samples were collected at the river along the El Paso (U.S.)–Juárez (Mexico) municipalities. Water and sediment were digested using H₂O₂ or NaOH to isolate (CaCl₂), dye (Nile Red), quantify, and classify MPs by fluorescence microscopy. The number of microparticles detected in water and sediment ranged from 0.4 to 17 particles/L and 2.8 × 10³–1.0 × 10⁴ particles/kg, respectively. Similar concentrations of microparticles were estimated in water among sampled sites (ANOVA) in 2022 (p = 0.432, α = 0.05) and 2023 (p = 0.255, α = 0.05), but there were differences in sediments (2022, p < 0.01; 2023, p = 0.032. α = 0.05). Fibres, fragments, and films, with sizes ranging from 12.62 to 4282.25 µm, were found in the samples. Fibres were the most abundant shape in water (71.94%) and sediments (91.07%). MP concentrations varied in water and sediments in both years. The data generated by this study provide new insights into feasible methods for MP detection and its presence in the Río Bravo/Grande. Full article

The CHIARA Project investigates women’s mental health and vulnerability to sex trafficking in the U.S.–Mexico border states (California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico). A mixed-methods design was employed, combining qualitative content analysis of media, legal, and policy documents with quantitative analyses of secondary datasets from health institutions, the National Human Trafficking Hotline, the Polaris Project, and the U.S. Census Bureau. Data were cleaned, integrated, and examined through descriptive statistics, regression models, and correlation matrices using R Studio, complemented by visualizations to identify patterns and hotspots. Results show a strong association between higher crime rates, reported trafficking cases, and the prevalence of mental health disorders such as PTSD, depression, and anxiety among women. California and Texas consistently reported higher trafficking cases and mental health burdens, while regression analyses highlighted poverty, limited education, and gender inequality as significant predictors of vulnerability. These findings underscore the interplay between socioeconomic conditions and gender-specific exploitation at the border. By linking mental health and trafficking indicators, the study provides actionable insights for community leaders, policymakers, and healthcare providers, emphasizing the need for trauma-informed care, targeted prevention strategies, and policies that address both structural inequities and survivor rehabilitation. Full article

Background: Prior research has established a positive relationship between emotional self-efficacy and life satisfaction in elementary school-age children. However, less is known about the direct impact of positive leisure experience on subjective well-being and the potential mediating role of emotional self-efficacy. Objectives: This study examined whether emotional self-efficacy mediates the association between overall leisure enjoyment and life satisfaction among elementary schoolchildren. It was hypothesized that both direct and indirect effects are statistically significant. Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional design was used with 100 fifth- and sixth-grade students from a U.S.–Mexico border community. Participants completed the Children’s Assessment of Participation and Enjoyment (CAPE), the emotional subscale of the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C), and the Student Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS). Mediation analysis was conducted in R with bootstrapping (500 simulations). Results: Overall leisure enjoyment was positively associated with life satisfaction (β = 0.54, 95% CI [0.23, 0.90], p = 0.004). The direct effect remained significant after accounting for emotional self-efficacy (β = 0.41, 95% CI [0.15, 0.73], p = 0.004). The indirect effect through emotional self-efficacy was also significant (β = 0.13, 95% CI [0.03, 0.29], p = 0.016), accounting for approximately 25% of the total effect. Conclusions: Emotional self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between overall leisure enjoyment and life satisfaction, suggesting that positive leisure experience enhances children’s emotional coping confidence and subjective well-being. These findings underscore the importance of promoting accessible and enjoyable leisure opportunities within marginalized communities that simultaneously foster children’s emotional self-efficacy and well-being. Full article

This study reviews the influence of the U.S. Good Neighbor Environmental Board on water management along the U.S.–Mexico border. The GNEB has a unique mandate to inform the president and congress of needed infrastructure, investments, and policy actions supporting sustainable development of communities and natural resources in the border region. The study uses the GNEB’s own policy recommendations in its annual reports to consider its influence on border water management over more than 25 years. It concludes that while the GNEB’s recommendations have not had a direct impact on border water management policy, it has played an important role in describing border water management conditions; endorsing and legitimizing federal border environmental programs; spotlighting and advocating for best practices in border water management, including promoting policy integration among federal, state, and local water management programs; and advancing binational cooperation in developing and implementing border environment and water-related programs. Full article

Santa Ana winds are extreme meteorological events that strongly affect the U.S.–Mexico border region, often associated with droughts, high fire risk, and hydrological imbalance. Understanding the temporal behavior of key atmospheric variables during these events is crucial for integrated water resource management in semi-arid regions such as the Guadalupe Basin in northern Baja California. In this study, we explored the predictive capability of several hybrid deep learning architectures—Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Convolutional Neural Network combined with LSTM (CNN–LSTM), and Bidirectional LSTM with Attention (BiLSTM–Attention)—to model the temporal evolution of wind speed, wind direction, temperature, relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure using Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) reanalysis data from 1980 to 2020. Model performance was evaluated using RMSE, MAE, and R² metrics and compared against persistence and climatology baselines. The BiLSTM–Attention model achieved the best overall performance, showing particularly high accuracy for temperature (R² = 0.95) and relative humidity (R² = 0.76), while maintaining angular errors below 35° for wind direction. The results demonstrate the potential of hybrid deep learning models to capture nonlinear temporal dependencies in meteorological time series and provide a methodological framework to enhance hydrometeorological understanding and water resource management in the Guadalupe Basin under Santa Ana wind conditions. Full article

The transnationalism phenomenon is at the forefront of today’s globalized world. This ethnographic self-reconstruction recounts a personal story as a transnational. I reflect on my engagement in continuous transnational migration practices, and on how these have and continue to mediate my identity [re]construction and my development of conocimiento. These insights help not only contribute to the under-explored body of literature that has adopted a comparative stance in looking at transnationalism and education on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border, but also seek to promote conversation around the behaviors and cognitive benefits of those who engage in such ongoing migration practices and are immersed in educational settings. Full article

Grounded in frameworks of decoloniality and transnationalism, this study examines how organizational behaviors in education—particularly in teacher preparation—can shift to more inclusively serve transnational youth, challenging Eurocentric, nation-bound assumptions about pedagogy, belonging, and professional development. The present study aims to understand Mexican-origin returnees and transnational migrants who came back to Mexico to pursue English teacher preparation degrees in Guanajuato and Hidalgo after spending significant periods of time on either side of the Mexico-U.S. border. Our study aimed to recognize and describe the experiences that shaped their English teaching practices and professional commitments to teaching English as a foreign language. Using narrative inquiry within a longitudinal qualitative study of 28 Mexican-origin pre-service English teachers, our research was guided by frameworks of decoloniality and transnationalism. Our findings reveal that for participants, U.S.-based teaching approaches were recalled most often as the best compared to Mexican ones. Participants also reflected on how their experiences of learning and adapting to a new culture contributed to their professional identity and how their ability to adapt constituted a form of international-mindedness. We argue that through the comparison and adoption of multiple decolonial practices, teacher preparation programs can produce culturally responsive pedagogies that cross borders. By illustrating how teacher preparation programs can cultivate culturally responsive pedagogies that transcend national boundaries, the study highlights the potential of decolonial and transnational perspectives to transform organizational behavior at multiple levels of educational practice and policy. Full article

Background: Residents of the US–Mexico border face cost-related barriers in accessing necessary medical care. Given the potential for individualized or broader tailoring of solutions to reflect community needs, we sought to identify risk factors for being uninsured and forgoing necessary medical care due to cost among a largely Hispanic adult population residing along the US–Mexico border. Methods: Surveys among adults in a major US–Mexico border area were used to investigate cost-related forgone medical care and lack of insurance. Binary Logit models were employed to model multiple binary outcomes informed by our theoretical frameworks. Results: Lower education, Hispanic ethnicity, being younger, lacking underlying illness and/or having obesity, forgoing medical care due to cost, and having lower income were associated with a higher likelihood of being uninsured; while being female, being younger, having underlying illness and/or having obesity (potential increased risk of severe illness due to COVID-19), lacking insurance, and having a lower income were risk factors for forgone medical care due to cost. Conclusions: This study adds novel insight into existing health inequities facing those residing along the US–Mexico border region, thereby holding timely public health implications. Full article

Immigrant and mixed-status families comprise a growing population in the United States, facing numerous barriers to accessing essential health and social services. This study examines service access barriers within the unique context of New Mexico’s borderlands, where constitutionally protected bilingualism and welcoming local policies contrast sharply with restrictive federal border enforcement. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted five focus groups with 36 immigrant caregivers in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, with the objective of understanding the factors that facilitate and hinder immigrant families’ access to health, behavioral health, and social services in this socio-politically complex border environment. Thematic analysis revealed three overarching themes: (1) structural and organizational limitations, including language barriers and transportation challenges exacerbated by border checkpoints; (2) the persistence of “chilling effects” on service use despite a Democratic presidency and post-pandemic policy shifts; and (3) community-defined recommendations for improving service access. The findings demonstrate how federal immigration enforcement undermines local inclusion efforts, creating enduring barriers to service access even in historically bilingual, immigrant-friendly regions. The participants proposed specific solutions, including mobile service units and integrated service centers, that account for both geographic and socio-political barriers unique to border regions. These community-generated recommendations offer practical strategies for improving immigrant service access in contexts where local welcome and federal enforcement create competing pressures on immigrant families. Full article

Effective community health initiatives are grounded in strategic collaboration among community-based organizations and local residents to ensure the interventions are responsive to the community’s unique needs. Drawing on insights from community partners and project participants, this study explored key factors that facilitated, hindered, and strengthened community engagement, collaboration, and sustainability in health promotion efforts for underserved populations on the U.S.-Mexico border. This study utilized semi-structured interviews to gather the perspectives and insights of community partners and participants regarding effective health promotion strategies developed through our collaborative project. Data were collected from 15 community partners who have collaborated with our project and 15 participants who had attended our project events (n = 30). Our study identified four major themes: (1) key attributes and perceived value of effective health promotion activities, (2) tailored approaches for engaging underserved populations, (3) strategies for successful partnerships, and (4) ways to enhance health promotion and barriers to overcome. Practice implications are discussed. Full article

The vast majority of ocean plastics originate from land and are transported over long distances to their final sink. Yet, our current understanding of transfer mechanisms through rivers and estuaries remains poor due to a lack of consistent methods for assessing and monitoring plastic waste. In this study, we quantify and characterize the abundance of plastics in the Tijuana River estuary, located along the U.S.–Mexico border. We found a total of 2804 plastic debris items, of which 79.3% were sampled during heavy rainfalls and 20.7% during the dry period. Overall, most plastics were attributed to five economic sectors: packaging, food, construction, fishing, and tourism, highlighting losses during the use and waste management phases of the plastic’s value chain. Based on the results of the analysis, consistent monitoring of plastic pollution is recommended for managing variable plastic loads. Full article