About

Glen Miller is an Instructional Professor of Philosophy and the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Texas A&M University College of Arts and Sciences. His research and teaching focus on helping people understand and navigate their social, technological, and ecological environments through the lens of philosophy and ethics of technology, ethics, political philosophy, and environmental philosophy. He has co-edited two volumes: 'Thinking through Science and Technology: Philosophy, Religion, and Politics in an Engineered World' (2023) and 'Reimagining Philosophy and Technology, Reinventing Ihde' (2020). He serves as an associate editor for the journal Science and Engineering Ethics and an executive editor for Philosophy & Technology.

Research topics

• Environmental science
• Geography
• Meteorology
• Atmospheric sciences
• Geology
• Ecology
• Oceanography
• Cartography
• Remote sensing
• Physical geography
• Climatology

Selected publications

• Use of Low Impact Development Systems to Enhance Recharge using Stormwater in a Heavily Groundwater-Depleted Region of the Gulf Coast Aquifer

  2026-01-17

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Water resources in the Houston Metropolitan Area, otherwise known as Greater Houston, have been under enormous stress for decades due to an increase in population and uncertain climate conditions. Rapid urbanization has also increased impervious cover, leading to excess stormwater runoff. Implementing managed aquifer recharge (MAR) through the use of low impact development (LID) strategies can augment stormwater infiltration and help replenish groundwater resources in the region. However, research on the effects of LID practices on groundwater quantity and quality in the Greater Houston metropolitan area is limited. The main objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the impact of two LID systems and the native soil on groundwater recharge and chemistry. Three test cells representing native soil, soil amendment, and trench aggregates were constructed in a detention basin in a Houston suburb and their performance was evaluated over a two-year period. We found that trench aggregates recorded the highest mean cumulative infiltration over the monitoring period, 1.5 times that of the soil amendment and 1.6 times that of the native soil. When the test cells were completely inundated, native soil registered a drainage of 773 mm which was 13 times that of trenches and 20 times that of soil amendment. The results from the infiltration data were supported by the groundwater elevation data. The groundwater quality was not highly affected during this study except for its salinity content. The findings suggest that retrofitting detention basins with LID systems helped enhance recharge over the long term. Native soil also facilitated significant infiltration when the detention basin was completely inundated for a prolonged period by modifying its outfall structure. The results from this study can help engineers better design existing stormwater detention basins to augment groundwater resources.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Texas Water Observatory: A Distributed Network for Monitoring Water, Energy, and Carbon Cycles Under Variable Climate and Land Use on Gulf Coast Plains

  2024-07-15

  preprintOpen access

  In the Gulf Coastal Plains of Texas, a state-of-the-art distributed network of field observatories, known as the Texas Water Observatory (TWO), is developed to better understand the water, energy, and carbon cycles across the critical zone (encompassing aquifers, soils, plants, and atmosphere) at different spatiotemporal scales.Using more than 300 advanced real-time / near-real-time sensors, this observatory monitors high-frequency water, energy, and carbon storage and fluxes in the Brazos River corridor, which are critical for coupled hydrologic, biogeochemical, and land-atmosphere process understanding in the region.TWO provides a regional resource for better understanding and/or managing agriculture, water resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, disasters, health, energy, and weather/climate.TWO infrastructure spans common land uses in this region, including (traditional/aspirational cultivated agriculture, rangelands, native prairie, bottomland hardwood forest, and coastal wetlands).Sites represent landforms from low-relief erosional uplands to depositional lowlands across climatic and geologic gradients of central Texas.We present the overarching vision of TWO and describe site design, instrumentation specifications, data collection, and quality control protocols.We also provide a comparison of water, energy, and carbon budget across sites, including evapotranspiration, carbon fluxes, radiation budget, weather, profile soil moisture and soil temperature, soil hydraulic properties, hydrogeophysical surveys, groundwater levels and groundwater quality reported at TWO primary sites for 2018-2020 (with certain data gaps).In conjunction with various earth-observing remote sensing and legacy databases, TWO provides a master testbed to evaluate process-driven or data-driven critical zone science, leading to improved natural resource management and decision support at different spatiotemporal scales. Significance StatementWe provide the vision, design setup, and data acquisition of a state-of-the-art network of field observatories across the Gulf Coast plains of Texas.This observatory provides a wealth of measurements of the water, energy, and carbon fluxes, thereby providing a critical testbed for improving the understanding of terrestrial hydrological, biogeochemical and atmospheric processes across diverse landuse and climate conditions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Using Phenocamera Imagery to Characterize Fog: An Analysis from a Costa Rican Rainforest

  Agricultural and Forest Meteorology · 2024-10-10 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Texas Water Observatory: A Distributed Network for Monitoring Water, Energy, and Carbon Cycles under Variable Climate and Land Use on Gulf Coast Plains

  Journal of Hydrometeorology · 2024-09-16 · 2 citations

  article

  Abstract In the Gulf Coastal Plains of Texas, a state-of-the-art distributed network of field observatories, known as the Texas Water Observatory (TWO), is developed to better understand the water, energy, and carbon cycles across the critical zone (encompassing aquifers, soils, plants, and atmosphere) at different spatiotemporal scales. Using more than 300 advanced real-time/near-real-time sensors, this observatory monitors high-frequency water, energy, and carbon storage and fluxes in the Brazos River corridor, which are critical for coupled hydrologic, biogeochemical, and land–atmosphere process understanding in the region. TWO provides a regional resource for better understanding and/or managing agriculture, water resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, disasters, health, energy, and weather/climate. TWO infrastructure spans common land uses in this region, including traditional/aspirational cultivated agriculture, rangelands, native prairie, bottomland hardwood forest, and coastal wetlands. Sites represent landforms from low-relief erosional uplands to depositional lowlands across climatic and geologic gradients of central Texas. We present the overarching vision of TWO and describe site design, instrumentation specifications, data collection, and quality control protocols. We also provide a comparison of water, energy, and carbon budget across sites, including evapotranspiration, carbon fluxes, radiation budget, weather, profile soil moisture and soil temperature, soil hydraulic properties, hydrogeophysical surveys, groundwater levels, and groundwater quality reported at TWO primary sites for 2018–20 (with certain data gaps). In conjunction with various Earth-observing remote sensing and legacy databases, TWO provides a master testbed to evaluate process-driven or data-driven critical zone science, leading to improved natural resource management and decision support at different spatiotemporal scales. Significance Statement We provide the vision, design setup, and data acquisition of a state-of-the-art network of field observatories across the Gulf Coastal Plains of Texas. This observatory provides a wealth of measurements of the water, energy, and carbon fluxes, thereby providing a critical testbed for improving the understanding of terrestrial hydrological, biogeochemical, and atmospheric processes across diverse land-use and climate conditions.

  PublisherDOI

• Using Phenocamera Imagery to Characterize Fog: An Analysis from a Costa Rican Rainforest

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Impacts of Groundwater Pumping for Hydraulic Fracturing on Aquifers Overlying the Eagle Ford Shale

  Ground Water · 2023-07-28 · 1 citations

  article

  Abstract Hydraulic fracturing (HF) events consume high volumes of water over a short time. When groundwater is the source, the additional pumping by rig/frack supply wells (RFSWs) may impose costs on owners of other sector wells (OSWs) by lowering the hydraulic head. The Carrizo–Wilcox aquifer in south Texas is the main source of water for HF of the Eagle Ford Shale (EFS) Play. The objectives are to assess the impacts of groundwater pumping for HF supply on: (1) hydraulic heads in OSWs located nearby an RFSW and (2) volumetric fluxes between layers of the regional aquifer system compared to a baseline model without the effect of RFSW pumping. The study area spans the footprint of the EFS Play in Texas and extends from 2011 to 2020. The pumping schedules of 2500 RFSWs were estimated from reported pumped water volumes to supply 22,500 HF events. Median annual drawdowns in OSWs ranged from 0.2 to 6.6 m, whereas 95th percentile annual drawdowns exceeded 20 m. The magnitudes of drawdown increased from 2011 to 2020. Of the four layers that comprise the Carrizo–Wilcox aquifer, the upper Wilcox was the most intensively pumped for HF supply. During the peak HF year of 2014, the net flux to the upper Wilcox was 292 Mm 3 compared to the baseline net flux for the same year of 278 Mm 3 —a relative gain of 14 Mm 3 . Pumping for HF supply has the potential to negatively impact nearby OSWs by capturing water from adjacent aquifer layers.

  PublisherDOI

• Unraveling the effects of management and climate on carbon fluxes of U.S. croplands using the USDA Long-Term Agroecosystem (LTAR) network

  Agricultural and Forest Meteorology · 2022-09-16 · 17 citations

  articleOpen access

  Understanding the carbon fluxes and dynamics from a broad range of agricultural systems has the potential to improve our ability to increase carbon sequestration while maintaining crop yields. Short-term, single-location studies have limited applicability, but long-term data from a network of many locations can provide a broader understanding across gradients of climate and management choices. Here we examine eddy covariance measured carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes from cropland sites across the United States Department of Agriculture's Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network. The dataset was collected between 2001 and 2020, spanning 13 sites for a total of 182 site-years. Average seasonal patterns of net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE), gross primary productivity (GPP), and ecosystem respiration (Reco) were determined, and subsequent regression analysis on these “flux climatologies” was used to identify relationships to mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), cropping systems, and management practices. At rainfed sites, carbon fluxes were better correlated with MAP (r2 ≤ 0.5) than MAT (r2 ≤ 0.22). Net carbon balance was different among cropping systems (p < 0.001), with the greatest net carbon uptake occurring in sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids) and the least in soybean (Glycine max) fields. Crop type had a greater effect on carbon balance than irrigation management at a Nebraska site. Across cropping systems, grain crops often had higher GPP and were more likely to have net uptake when compared to legume crops. This multi-site analysis highlights the potential of the LTAR network to further carbon flux research using eddy covariance measurements.

  PublisherDOI

• Waterborne arsenic and fluoride exposure in Mexico: risk assessment and epidemiological research on their health effects

  ISEE Conference Abstracts · 2022-09-18

  articleOpen access

  Many aquifers in Mexico contain toxic levels of arsenic and fluoride; still, 39% of the population relies on groundwater for drinking. Our objectives were to evaluate the health risks of fluoride and arsenic in drinking water in central [Cuenca Alta del Río Laja (CARL)] and northern [Comarca Lagunera (CL)] Mexico, and to compare economic and health trade-offs of different aquifer pumping scenarios. In two CARL studies, we measured arsenic and fluoride in drinking water and fluoride in children’s urine; health risks were estimated through hazard quotients (HQ). In 2018 we assessed dental fluorosis (n=39) and in 2019, we measured intelligence quotient (IQ) (n=74). Another study modeled the revenues, costs, health, and income outcomes from increasing, decreasing, or maintaining the aquifer pumping rates over 100 years. The fourth study assessed cancer and non-cancer risks in CL according to arsenic levels in 91 wells. In CARL, children who drank groundwater had an increased fluoride risk of health effects (HQ= 1.5); 82% presented dental fluorosis, and their urine fluoride concentrations increased 0.96 mg/L per 1 mg/L increase in water fluoride (p &amp;#x3c; 0.001). Urine fluoride was negatively associated with IQ (β= -1.12, CI 95% -4.1, 1.8). Assuming increasing aquifer pumping rates in the next 100 years, arsenic and fluoride concentrations would increase to 40 &amp;#x3bc;g/L and 2.1 mg/L, respectively, potentially diminishing IQ by 6 and 7 points, respectively. In CL, 90% of the sampled wells exceeded the WHO’s arsenic drinking water guidelines; the carcinogenic risk ranged from 2.6×10-⁵ to 6.1×10-³. Children in CARL and CL are drinking groundwater with toxic fluoride and arsenic concentrations that increase their cancer and non-cancer health risks to unacceptable levels. The health and economic benefits of mitigating exposure to arsenic and fluoride greatly exceed the benefits of increasing pumping for more agricultural production. Keywords: arsenic, fluoride, water, Mexico

  PublisherDOI

• AmeriFlux AmeriFlux CR-SoC Soltis Center

  OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 2022-01-01

  datasetOpen access

  This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site CR-SoC Soltis Center. Site Description - The Texas A&amp;M Soltis Center for Research and Education is located in San Juan de Peñas Blancas, San Ramón, Costa Rica. In 2009, Charles W. "Bill" and Wanda Soltis donated a new facility to the university and granted it a long-term lease on the adjacent 250 acres of land. The site hosts both primary and secondary growth rainforest, the later of which was selectively logged between the 1950's and the 1990's. It is best classified as a lower montane forest, located in the transitional area between the upper and lower montane cloud forests and the lowland rainforests. Temperatures average 23°C with 4200 mm/yr of rainfall; a short drier period typically occurs between January and April. Estimates suggest that the site hosts more than 2000 species of vascular plants, with dominant vegetation types including plants in the Sapotaceae, Moracea, and Malvaceae families.

  PublisherDOI

• A Systems Approach to Remediating Human Exposure to Arsenic and Fluoride From Overexploited Aquifers

  GeoHealth · 2022-06-16 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract In semiarid agricultural regions, aquifers have watered widespread economic development. Falling water tables, however, drive up energy costs and can make the water toxic for human consumption. The study area is located in central Mexico, where arsenic and fluoride are widely present at toxic concentrations in well water. We simulated the holistic outcomes from three pumping scenarios over 100 years (2020–2120); (S1) pumping rates increase at a similar rate to the past 40 years, (S2) remain constant, or (S3) decrease. Under scenario S1, by 2120, the depth to water table increased to 426 m and energy consumption for irrigation increased to 4 × 10 9 kWh/yr. Arsenic and fluoride concentrations increased from 14 to 46 μg/L and 1.0 to 3.6 mg/L, respectively. The combined estimated IQ point decrements from drinking untreated well water lowered expected incomes in 2120 by 27% compared to what they would be with negligible exposure levels. We calculated the 100‐year Net Present Value (NPV) of each scenario assuming the 2020 average crop value to water footprint ratio of 0.12 USD/m 3 . Without drinking water mitigation, S1 and S3 yielded relative NPVs of −5.96 × 10 9 and 1.51 × 10 9 USD, respectively, compared to the base case (S2). The relative NPV of providing blanket reverse osmosis treatment, while keeping pumping constant (S2), was 11.55 × 10 9 USD and this gain increased when combined with decreased pumping (S3). If a high value, low water footprint crop was substituted (broccoli, 1.51 USD/m 3 ), the net gains from increasing pumping were similar in size to those of implementing blanket drinking water treatment.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• CAREER: Science for Sustainable and Resilient Groundwater Management

  NSF · $419k · 2014–2021

Frequent coauthors

• Georgianne W. Moore

  Georgia Southern University

  48 shared

• Peter S.K. Knappett

  University of Georgia

  24 shared

• A. T. Cahill

  Texas A&M University

  22 shared

• L. M. T. Aparecido

  University of Utah

  22 shared

• Dennis Baldocchi

  University of California, Berkeley

  14 shared

• Jae‐Young Song

  Rural Development Administration

  13 shared

• Nandita Gaur

  University of Georgia

  12 shared

• Benoît Burban

  12 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Civil and Environmental Engineeing

  University of California Berkeley

  2009

• M.S., Geological Engineering

  Missouri University of Science and Technology

  2003

• B.S., Geological Engineering

  Missouri University of Science and Technology

  2002

Awards & honors

• Texas A&M Association of Former Students College Level Disti…
• Texas A&M College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Excellence Aw…
• Presidential Transformational Teaching Grant