scholarly journals Survey of Legal Mechanisms Relating to Groundwater Along the Texas-Mexico Border

Author(s):  
Jessica Foster

The purpose of this study is to present a factual picture of the multiple groundwater governance frameworks that cover the same transboundary aquifers on the Texas-Mexico border. The study can then serve as a foundation to support future research and as a reference for those sharing groundwater resources on the border to use in considering whether and how to coordinate management. Currently, Texas A&M School of Law, the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, and the Texas Water Resources Institute are collaboratively pursuing a larger interdisciplinary project, and the study presented in this report is part of that concerted endeavor. First, the project establishes a study area, then identifies who are the stakeholders in the area, and finally summarizes the various rules each entity applies to groundwater. The study area selected is based on the aquifers identified in the 2016 study noted above (see Figure 1). Although there is currently no formal agreement between governments or users in Mexico and Texas for managing the reservoirs that cross underneath the international border, this survey represents a preliminary step in addressing the larger problems that the absence of a cooperative groundwater management framework presents. All of the institutional approaches employed in the various jurisdictions surveyed here model features from which developing management approaches could draw. Equally, noting gaps in the institutional approaches themselves and the ad hoc groundwater withdrawals occurring outside the reach of those institutions illustrates potential value in engaging local users in Texas’ and Mexico’s respective groundwater governance arrangements.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 13566
Author(s):  
Lorena Buckreus ◽  
Anne-Kathrin Nuffer ◽  
Robert Miehe ◽  
Alexander Sauer

The increase in the number of environmental regulations has resulted in great challenges for corporations in the manufacturing industry, especially within the electronic and electrical and the mechanical engineering sector. To address these compliance requirements, specialized management fields such as environmental compliance, substructures and management approaches have been implemented in industry. Recently, adherence to requirements concerning the composition of products and the use of materials and substances within products has become increasingly important and is referred to as material compliance (MC). Although the topic is of increasing importance, there is no generally accepted definition for MC nor a management framework. Corporations are thus unable to systematically address MC, and compliance violations occur frequently. We derived a definition for MC based on extensive literature research, which we subsequently evaluated in a quantitative survey. Our results indicate that MC is commonly understood as the adherence to requirements concerning the composition of a product and the use of substances and materials within products. By proposing a definition for MC, we aim to introduce a common understanding, enable future research to systematically address the topic and develop a framework for the management of MC.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0160323X2110031
Author(s):  
Jason D. Rivera ◽  
Andrew Uttaro

Although New Public Service (NPS) principles are well known, their practice in local government settings has only been limitedly explored. As a means of better understanding governance practices that adhere to NPS principles in local contexts, this study engaged in a case study of Grand Island, New York. Through the analysis of interviews with elected officials and civic servant department heads, it is observed that public servants practice various public engagement strategies for gauging public sentiment and interests in public policy. However, these same public servants point out the challenges of public hearings and social media to understanding their citizens. Information on public servants’ notions of accountability is observed, which relates to how they view the public’s involvement in policy processes. Recommendations for future research are provided as a means of enhancing our understanding and development of more inclusive governance practices.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 596
Author(s):  
Marco Buzzelli ◽  
Luca Segantin

We address the task of classifying car images at multiple levels of detail, ranging from the top-level car type, down to the specific car make, model, and year. We analyze existing datasets for car classification, and identify the CompCars as an excellent starting point for our task. We show that convolutional neural networks achieve an accuracy above 90% on the finest-level classification task. This high performance, however, is scarcely representative of real-world situations, as it is evaluated on a biased training/test split. In this work, we revisit the CompCars dataset by first defining a new training/test split, which better represents real-world scenarios by setting a more realistic baseline at 61% accuracy on the new test set. We also propagate the existing (but limited) type-level annotation to the entire dataset, and we finally provide a car-tight bounding box for each image, automatically defined through an ad hoc car detector. To evaluate this revisited dataset, we design and implement three different approaches to car classification, two of which exploit the hierarchical nature of car annotations. Our experiments show that higher-level classification in terms of car type positively impacts classification at a finer grain, now reaching 70% accuracy. The achieved performance constitutes a baseline benchmark for future research, and our enriched set of annotations is made available for public download.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 998-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian R. Hodgkinson ◽  
Claire Hannibal ◽  
Byron W. Keating ◽  
Rosamund Chester Buxton ◽  
Nicola Bateman

Purpose In providing a fine-grained analysis of public service management, the purpose of this paper is to make an important contribution to furthering research in service management, a body of literature that has tended to regard public services as homogenous or to neglect the context altogether. Design/methodology/approach Integrating public management and service management literatures, the past and present of public service management are discussed. Future directions for the field are outlined drawing on a service-dominant approach that has the potential to transform public services. Invited commentaries augment the review. Findings The review presents the Public Service Network Framework to capture the public value network in its abstraction and conceptualizes how value is created in public services. The study identifies current shortcomings in the field and offers a series of directions for future research where service management theory can contribute greatly. Research limitations/implications The review encourages service management research to examine the dynamic, diverse, and complex nature of public services and to recognize the importance of this context. The review calls for an interdisciplinary public service management community to develop, and to assist public managers in leveraging service logic. Originality/value The review positions service research in the public sector, makes explicit the role of complex networks in value creation, argues for wider engagement with public service management, and offers future research directions to advance public service management research.


2010 ◽  
Vol 1278 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. E. Rendon ◽  
M. E. Lara ◽  
S. K. Rendon ◽  
M. Rendon ◽  
X. Li

AbstractConcrete biodeterioration is defined as the damage that the products of microorganism metabolism, in particular sulfuric acid, do to hardened concrete. In Canada and in the northern part of the United States, sewer failures from concrete biodeterioration are almost unknown. In the southern part of the United States and in Mexico, however, it is a serious and expensive problem in sewage collection systems, which rapidly deteriorate. Also, leaking sewage systems result in the loss of groundwater resources particularly important in this arid region. Almost every city in the Mexican-American border region, who's combined population is more than 15 million people, faces this problem. The U.S. cities have made some provision to face these infrastructure problems, but the Mexican cities have made less effort. We recommend here the Mexican norm (NMX-C-414-ONNCCE-2004) [1] to be reviewed, or at least that a warning be issued as a key measure to avoid concrete biodeterioration.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Mussie T. Tessema ◽  
Kubilay Gok ◽  
Alex Ngoma ◽  
Mengsteab Tesfayohannes ◽  
Gerry V. Fernando

This paper uses Singapore as a case study to illustrate how staffing policies and practices affect the quality of the workforce which ultimately influence performance at employee and organization level. It reveals that Singapore public service has been able to put in place most of the ‘critical factors’ for an effective staffing system management. The presence of those critical factors have played an important role in making Singapore to be one of the most effective public services in the world. Finally, it forwards theoretical and practical implications of the study and future research direction.


Author(s):  
Adrian Ritz ◽  
Wouter Vandenabeele ◽  
Dominik Vogel

When pressure on human resource departments to make government more efficient is increasing, it is of great relevance to understand employees’ motivation and the fit of an employee with their job, as both contribute strongly to service performance. Therefore, this chapter discusses the role of public employees’ motivation and its relationship to individual performance. More specifically, this relationship is examined by focusing on public service motivation (PSM), a stream of research developed during the last three decades stressing the service orientation of public employees’ identity. Theoretically, how the relationship between PSM and individual performance is dependent on institutions is discussed, and an overview of the existing empirical evidence concerning this relationship is provided. The literature review discusses a variety of aspects such as direct vs. indirect effects, type of performance used, how performance is measured, and effect sizes. Finally, several avenues for future research are proposed, including methodological strategies.


Author(s):  
Raduan Che Rose ◽  
Naresh Kumar ◽  
Ong Gua Pak

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The literature review reveals that there is a relationship between organizational learning organizational commitment, job satisfaction and work performance. However, it is apparent that the integrated relationships between these variables have not been found to be reported. Hence, we examine the relationship among these variables using a sample of public service managers in Malaysia. Organizational learning was found positively related to organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and work performance. Organizational commitment and job satisfaction are also positively related with work performance and these variables partially mediate the relationship between organizational learning and work performance. Implication of the study and suggestions for future research been discussed in this paper.</span></span></p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 163-176
Author(s):  
Dwi Sarah ◽  
Eko Soebowo ◽  
Nugroho Aji Satriyo

Land subsidence is a global threat to coastal areas worldwide, including the North Java coastal area. Of many areas experiencing land subsidence in North Java, the rate of land subsidence in Pekalongan has matched the high subsidence rates usually found in big cities. The rate of land subsidence in Pekalongan far exceeds the sea-level rise, resulting in a looming threat of land loss. The devastating impacts of land subsidence are the manifestation of its subsurface movement. Therefore, it is essential to understand the subsurface to elucidate the mechanism of land subsidence. Previous studies on land subsidence in Pekalongan are mainly related to subsidence rate monitoring and have not elaborated on the subsurface condition. This paper reviews the Pekalongan subsurface geology based on available literature to provide insight into the land subsidence problem. The results revealed that the land subsidence occurs in the recent alluvial plain of Pekalongan, consisting of a 30-70 m thick compressible deposit. Possible mechanisms of land subsidence arise from natural compaction, over-exploitation of confined groundwater, and increased built areas. As the seismicity of the study area is low, tectonic influence on land subsidence is considered negligible. It is expected that the offshore, nearshore, and swamp deposits are still naturally compacting. As the surface water supply is minimal, over-exploitation of groundwater resources from the deltaic and Damar Formation aquifers occurs. In the end, future research direction is proposed to reduce the impacts of the subsidence hazard.


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