What Mexico and Saskatchewan can teach each other about sustainability
USask water and sustainability researcher Dr. Bob Patrick (PhD) visited a Mexican city that has a lot in common with Saskatoon
By Chris Putnam
Two international trips in 2025 let a University of Saskatchewan (USask) faculty member share the benefits of USask research and gain perspective on global sustainability issues.
Dr. Bob Patrick (PhD), a professor in the College of Arts and Science’s Department of Geography and Planning, was awarded funding through USask’s Global Ambassador Program to visit the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP) in Mexico.
52 kB
Patrick is a researcher and award-winning teacher whose areas of interest include water management and sustainable cities. For several years, he has been collaborating remotely with Dr. Marcela Lopez Mares (PhD), a likeminded academic in the Faculty of Habitat at UASLP. The two researchers want to explore what Saskatoon and San Luis Potosí—an inland city of a million people coping with water stress—might learn from one another about urban water issues.
Patrick accepted an invitation from Lopez Mares to visit San Luis Potosí and made two week-long trips in February and October. During those visits, he gave a series of invited conference talks to academics and community members, lectured to students, and visited sites of research interest in and around the city.
What struck Patrick most were the parallels between Saskatoon and San Luis Potosí.
“When you arrive in a different country, there’s always that bit of culture shock, and you expect to be surprised. But when it comes to academic planning topics, (Canada and Mexico) are very, very similar,” he said.
An example is urban cycling. Just like Saskatoon, San Luis Potosí is home to an active citizen movement calling for more bike lanes and cycling infrastructure, and the movement faces very similar pushback from certain business and city leaders.
“The advantage (of international outreach) is seeing that these topics are not just Saskatoon-focused or even Canada-focused, but global in scale. And so, when you share challenges and success stories around these similar topics, it can really inform new ideas and opportunities,” Patrick said.
Patrick and Lopez Mares previously joined forces on a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) urban planning course in 2022 that saw USask and UASLP undergraduate students work together on comparative urban sustainability projects. Patrick also mentored two UASLP graduate students who came to USask in 2023 and 2024 as visiting research students through the Government of Canada’s Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program.
115.6 kB
These kinds of international experiences are priceless, said Patrick.
“The students have access to different literature, to other faculty to ask questions, and they get to experience Saskatoon. So they get an international experience as well.”
Patrick hopes to find funding to support a reciprocal trip by Lopez Mares to Saskatoon. He is also eager to take part in more international exchanges, whether to Mexico or other countries.
“It was a wonderful experience and one I hope to pursue again,” he said. "I am grateful for the travel support from our International Office."
Related Articles
The top stories of 2025
These were the 10 most-read College of Arts and Science news stories
Book Launch: ReVisions: Speculating in Literature and Film in Canada
Dystopian and apocalyptic fiction and film is explored in a new book edited by Dr. Wendy Roy (PhD) of the Department of English