Environmental and educational challenges of a conceptual model proposal for transboundary groundwater flow systems: Southern Mexican Borders.

Evidence on groundwater management policy in the Yucatan Peninsula indicates that Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize lack common scientific concepts to study shared groundwater flows. Their current international border treaties require an integrative systemic study to protect transboundary groundwater; it is required acknowledging the flows of different hierarchies and their respective recharge, transit, and discharge zones within their geological frame. UNESCO and IGRAC have identified transboundary aquifer systems shared between these countries as part of a regional strategy to manage shared natural elements. Thus, the objective of this paper deals with the study of political implications and environmental challenges under current national and international management policies on shared groundwater flows. This paper presents an interdisciplinary critical approach to the theoretical conceptualization of borders and the social nature of water within Geography. Also, the Gravity Driven Groundwater Flow Systems methodology is applied to elaborate a conceptual hydrogeological model to analyze regional groundwater flow boundaries, the flow conditions, and related environmental concerns. It is concluded that the UNESCO-IGRAC proposal requires understanding boundaries and flow conditions concerning regional groundwater flow systems and their potential environmental, social, and political implications. Current economic development in the Yucatan peninsula requires that regional land planning be designed based on the overall groundwater functioning to implement measures to prevent harmful environmental impacts and social conflicts at the local and regional scales. Regional groundwater flow systems education is to reconcile the political agenda of the countries involved to propose future and present sustainable development actions. Keywords: Transboundary Groundwater; Recharge-discharge Zones; Groundwater Flows, Sustainable Politics