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La cuenca del río Conchos:
una mirada desde las ciencias ante el cambio climático
reports for normal or near-normal conditions, and the need for
iterative training and maintenance of a network of observers. The
aforementioned issues, combined with the intensive place-based
resources required to develop social networks of stakeholders,
and an infrastructure for taking in and quality-controlling
observations, have slowed the development of impacts reporting
for the RGB region. NACSP partners have thus placed a lower
priority on developing a prototype regional drought impact
reporting system.
Consequently, since the initiation of the RGB Pilot, NACSP partners
have expanded impacts activities to include consideration of the
effect of climate change on drought and weather extremes, as
well as climate applications for improving preparedness for heat-
related public health risks. In 2014, the impacts group convened a
climate change scenario planning workshop, focused on climate,
water and environmental management issues in the reach of
the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo, southeast of Ojinaga, Chihuahua (the
so-called “wild and scenic reach”). Twenty-five scientists and
natural resource managers met at the offices of the International
Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), in El Paso, Texas, to use
strategic scenario planning techniques (e.g., Star
et al.,
, 2016) to
gain insights into environmental and natural resources planning
under conditions of high uncertainty. Participants included
climatologists, meteorologists, geologists, hydrologists, ecologists,
biologists, and environmental economists, representing a range
of U.S. and Mexican federal agencies, state agencies, universities,
and NGOs.
The participants developed a set of preliminary climate change
scenarios for the region, including plausible scenarios of future
environmental and social impacts. Key climate uncertainties
included the amount and timing of summer precipitation in the
future, the timing and severity of future drought, and the impacts
