Exploring the Nexus between LCLUC, Socio-Economic Factors, and Water for a Vulnerable Arid US-Mexico Transboundary Region

Our primary goals are to develop an Earth Observations to Decision-Making (EO2DM) framework for assessing the drivers of LCLUC and to apply the framework to develop climate change mitigation strategies for the transboundary Rio Grande/ Río Bravo basin (RGB) transboundary region. The fundamental research involves integrating remote sensing, water system models, and stakeholder power dynamics in developing culturally-aware regional sustainability plans for arid and semi-arid regions. In pursuit of the outlined goals, we have identified the following research objectives: a) the development of scalable methods to understand LCLUC throughout the regional watershed study area, including the US and Mexico, by fusing multiple data sources and developing new models; b) development of data-driven Bayesian Network (BN) based models that integrate LCLUC observations, water modeling results, policy initiatives, regulations and governance, socio-economic factors, stakeholders’ knowledge, and climate scenarios to help us understand the linkages between various systems; c) explore the BN model to identify policy-relevant interventions that can provide maximum leverage to achieve the desired LCLUC; and d) develop future scenarios based on modeled LCLUC to assess the climate vulnerability of the region.