News

Adriana Zuniga and Christopher Scott of the Udall Center, along with John O’Neil of Research Innovation and Impact, represented the University of Arizona at the Border Solutions Alliance convocation held at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in Washington DC on February 6, 2020. Under the broad banner of “Data-Driven Discovery at the US-Mexico Border” Adriana moderated the session “Regional Sustainability” that examined research and potential solutions for Urban-Rural Resilience and Transboundary Watershed and Aquifer Resources, together with participants from the University of California San Diego, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, New Mexico State University, and West Big Data Innovation Hub. John spoke on UArizona’s strengths in border research and policy. This event was the culmination of a series of workshops supported by the National Science Foundation that brought together researchers from universities along the border and across the border. The evening beforehand, the group was hosted at the Mexican Cultural Institute by the Mexican Ambassador to the U.S., Martha Bárcena (pictured with Adriana and Chris).

As part of the international seminar from January 27-29, ‘Resource Extraction: Impacts, Resistance and Conflict Resolution’, sponsored and organized by staff from the Udall Center of the University of Arizona; the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), iGlobes and LabExDRIIHM, a field trip was organized to the ASARCO Mission Mine and Discovery Center in Sahuarita, Arizona. Udall Center staff Dr. Stephanie Buechler and Molli Bryson joined seminar participants including Dr. America Lutz-Ley, COLSON professor and former graduate student and post doc with the Udall Center and with Arid Lands program at the University of Arizona as well as French colleagues and Edith Kauffer from CIESAS in Chiapas, Mexico. The open-pit mine is 1,400 feet deep and stretches two miles from north to south. The ASARCO mine (primarily copper is extracted there) is owned by Grupo Mexico, the same owner as a mine studied by Lutz-Ley and Buechler in Sonora, Mexico (for their forthcoming 2020 journal article: Mining and Women in Northwest Mexico: A Feminist Political Ecology Approach to Impacts on Rural Livelihoods. Human Geography, special issue “Gendered everyday resistance to the extractive industry.”). The group learned about the different processes involved in copper mining and where the copper and other ore extracted is sent afterwards for smelting Hayden, Arizona).

The Udall Center recently joined the Universities Partnership for Water Cooperation and Diplomacy (UPWCD), a network to strengthen water cooperation and diplomacy. As a partner, the Udall Center will involve its researchers and collaborators across the University of Arizona to contribute to the UPWCD’s mission to harness research, teaching, and engagement in international water policy and governance.

In October 2018, working with several campus units, the Udall Center organized a workshop, “Binational Water Relations at 75 Years.” The theme of the event was the anniversary of the Treaty of 1944 that governs water relations between the United States and Mexico. A number of the attendees resolved to prepare some papers on U.S.-Mexico water relations, as well as on the larger topic of hydrodiplomacy across the globe.

Adriana Zuniga (Udall Center and CAPLA) and Andrea Gerlak (Udall Center and School of Geography & Development) recently led efforts to promote green infrastructure adoption at Star Academic High School in Tucson’s south side. Through a university-community partnership, UArizona professors, graduate and undergraduate students worked with high school students to transform their school by harnessing rainwater to support local vegetation. This video captures their latest efforts.

Adriana Zuniga gave a talk at the Arizona Senior Academy last Nov. 27, 2019 about the project “Tucson Verde para Todos” that is led by Andrea Gerlak and funded by several organizations including the Haury Program, the UA Green Fund, and the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. This project aims to address environmental justice issues around green infrastructure in Tucson, AZ.

Stephanie Buechler and America Lutz-Ley publish a new article on youth and global environmental change in Mexico entitled 'Livelihoods with Multiple Stressors: Gendered Youth Decision-making under Global Change in rural NW Mexico’ in the journal Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space.

Chris Scott (Udall Center director) and Margaret Wilder (associate faculty member) present keynote talks at “Water Security Week,” held by our long-time collaborator, the Instituto Mexicano de la Tecnología del Agua (IMTA) in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Sept. 9-11, 2019.

The IWRA just published a new Water International Policy Brief titled "Putting Water Security to Work," written by Udall Center director Chris Scott and UWE professor Chad Staddon. The special issue addresses sustainability, metrics, community participation, equity and more. Click to read the full policy brief!

Last April 9, 2019, the Governing Board of the Sunnyside Unified School District recognized the work of the team working on the project Tucson Verde para Todos at their offices located at 2238 E Ginter Rd., Tucson, Arizona.