Challenges in Water Resources
Location of Program: Guanajuato, Mexico Year: 2012Program Director(s): Rollin H. Hotchkiss
Participating Major(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
Summary:
Analyze and propose solutions for flooding issues in Guanajuato Mexico in conjunction with students from the Universities of Zacatecas and Guanajuato.
Recap of the Year:
Our 2012 program shifted from Zacatecas to Guanajuato, where we established new working and research collaborations. Twelve BYU Civil Engineering students teamed with students from the Universities of Zacatecas and Guanajuato to focus on four different flooding issues in and around Guanajuato. Two months of preparatory work at a distance preceded the ten-day visit to Guanajuato. While there we made field trips to see the project sites and worked as teams to continue and finish the computer simulations of rainfall, runoff, and flood hazard issues. Before and after the trip we met about twice per week in class to discuss the history of Mexico and Guanajuato, to learn some basic Spanish, and to discuss progress made on the projects.