Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

5-1-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Ocean, Coastal, and Earth Sciences

First Advisor

Tian Y. Dong

Second Advisor

Jude Benavides

Third Advisor

Chu-Lin Cheng

Abstract

Long-term flow variability in transboundary rivers reflects the combined influence of water availability, infrastructure development, and binational water use. Integrating historical discharge with evolving water-use data remains challenging due to fragmented records and nationally bounded assessments. This study reconstructs a 125-year discharge record (1900–2025) from historical Water Bulletins and modern observations at 12 gauging stations, providing a spatiotemporal assessment of flow evolution and water-budget components in the Lower Rio Grande/Bravo (LRG).

Discharge records were grouped into four hydrologic regimes—natural (1900–1913), pre-dam (1935–1950), post-dam (1974–1989), and modern (2010–2025)—and analyzed alongside binational water-use data across major sectors. A basin-scale water budget, using Rio Grande City as the inflow and the Gulf of Mexico as the outflow, shows that median Gulf delivery declined from ~5,600 million cubic meters/Year [MCM/yr] under natural conditions to <20 MCM/yr in the modern period. Approximately 65% of this decline is attributable to upstream reductions and ~36% to binational consumption in the LRG, indicating that modern Gulf delivery is <1% of the natural flow in the terminal reach.

Comments

Copyright© 2026 Ana Yarely Casillas Rodríguez. All Rights Reserved. https://proquest.com/docview/3371131637

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