Breaking news about water resources research and education at Texas universities

Working through The Nature Conservancy’s Great Rivers Partnership, the conservancy and IBM are building a new computer-modeling framework that will allow users to simulate the behavior of river basins around the world to help decision makers make informed policy and management decisions that conserve the natural environment, the release said. [...] Raghavan Srinivasan, director of the Spatial Sciences Laboratory at Texas A&M University and one of the developers of SWAT, said that this activity is one of the major milestones in getting the computer-based models to apply worldwide policy analysis through world-renowned organizations such as The Nature Conservancy and IBM. [...] Special guest speakers include The Honorable Kip Averitt, chair of the Texas Senate Natural Resources Committee and member of the Senate Finance Committee; The Honorable Robert Duncan, chair of the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee and member of the Senate Natural Resources Committee and Senate Finance Committee; The Honorable Robert Puente, chair of the Texas House Natural Resources Committee;. [...] Morse, assistant professor at the College of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a member of the research team, said a large portion of the research is geared to look at endocrine disrupters and pharmaceutical contaminants, which are chemicals found in household items such as body wash and shampoo. [...] The grant funding will further the center’s work in four major areas: increasing the number of environmental engineering doctoral degrees; continuing environmental research in the Coastal Bend and Rio Grande Valley; increasing partnerships in the United States and Mexico to address environmental issues; and continuing public education efforts for lawmakers, educators and the public.