CREST Center for Sustainable Water Use (CREST-SWU)

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The Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology program provides support to enhance the research capabilities of minority-serving institutions through the establishment of centers that effectively integrate education and research. With National Science Foundation support, Texas A&M University-Kingsville will establish the "Center for Sustainable Water Use". This Center will engage in regional multidisciplinary research, education and stakeholder collaborations to advance the understanding of sustainable water use in South Texas in the context of complex physical, hydroclimatic, regulatory and social-economical settings. Center investigators will stimulate the development and assessment of water availability and quality monitoring networks, models, and management tools that will promote sustainable water use in South Texas and similar semi-arid regions.The Center for Sustainable Water Use will implement a research, education and outreach program articulated in three subprojects. The Monitoring and Information Systems subproject will develop comprehensive inventories of regional water availability, quality and demand. The Modeling and Dynamic Forecasting subproject will focus on regional water availability and quality models, delineating metadata needed to develop and integrate these models. The Decision Support Systems subproject will assess and disseminate decision-support tools to help regional stakeholders and policymakers determine the long-term efficacy of alternative water management strategies. Texas A&M University-Kingsville is a Hispanic-serving institution located in South Texas, at the center of the three regional Water Planning Areas. The study area is a representative microcosm for competing pressures, with limited water resources, irrigation-dependent agriculture, water-intensive energy production, sensitive coastal marine habitat, rapid population growth and urbanization, binational competition for water allocations, and frequent drought. Although regionally focused, Center activities address a global need for integrated tools and strategies for assessing long-term water sustainability.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.