{"id":76414,"date":"2025-11-20T13:22:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T20:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=76414"},"modified":"2025-12-09T05:51:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T12:51:48","slug":"rio-grande-fewsion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/rio-grande-fewsion\/","title":{"rendered":"Study: Rio Grande basin at serious risk from overuse of water\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study powered by Northern Arizona University\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>FEWSION Project<\/span><\/a>\u00a0found the water crisis in the Rio Grande basin is severe\u2014potentially just two dry winters away from a major water shortage for farms and communities in New Mexico,\u00a0Texas\u00a0and Mexico.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The study, published\u00a0<\/span>Nov. 20<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>in Discover Water<\/a>, was led by Brian Richter of Sustainable Waters and included\u00a0Kat Fowler <\/strong>and Eric Sj\u00f6stedt, <\/strong>Ph.D. students in informatics and computing, and Ben Ruddell<\/strong>, a professor in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Security at NAU and creator and director of FEWSION,\u00a0which maps the vulnerabilities, environmental footprints and resilience of U.S. supply chains. This is the\u00a0partnership\u2019s\u00a0third study looking at dwindling water supplies along major\u00a0U.S. river\u00a0basins.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers found that the overconsumption of water was primarily due to irrigated agriculture, and of that, the largest factor was cattle-feed crops such as alfalfa and grass hay. Only about half of the water being used is being replaced by natural processes.\u00a0Already,\u00a0surface water has dried up in June where the growing season lasts through October.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis severe water crisis presents an opportunity for envisioning a more secure and sustainable water future for the basin, but a swift transition will be needed to avoid damaging consequences for farms, cities and ecosystems,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the effects on humans\u2014the Rio Grande and underlying aquifers provide drinking water for more than\u00a011 million people\u00a0in Mexico and\u00a04 million people\u00a0in the United States\u2014natural ecosystems are at risk. The Rio Grande basin supports more than 130 mammals, 3,000 plant species and 500 bird species, and the wetlands are critically important to migratory birds. Already at least 75 freshwater fish species are at risk as their ecosystems disappear with the water.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These are the same trends the researchers noted when looking at the\u00a0<\/span>Colorado\u00a0River\u00a0basin<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Great Salt Lake<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0both of which play significant roles in western ecosystems and economies.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn most parts of the western United States, as in other mountainous and desert regions worldwide, the problem is the same: We are using more water in most years than nature makes available, and there is a growing shortage,\u201d Ruddell said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reversing this process will take intentional action, Ruddell said. One solution the researchers proposed is implementing \u201crotational fallowing\u201d programs, which pay farmers to reduce water use before reservoirs or groundwater runs dry. The region also needs significant investments in water infrastructure to add new supply,\u00a0efficiency\u00a0and storage.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Top image: The Rio Grande winding through Albuquerque, New Mexico<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/p>\n

Heidi Toth | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study powered by Northern Arizona University\u2019s\u00a0FEWSION Project\u00a0found the water crisis in the Rio Grande basin is severe\u2014potentially just two dry winters away from a major water shortage for farms and communities in New Mexico,\u00a0Texas\u00a0and Mexico.\u00a0 The study, published\u00a0Nov. 20\u00a0in Discover Water, was led by Brian Richter of Sustainable Waters and included\u00a0Kat Fowler and…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":76415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}