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BEHI Description

Dramatic urban growth, rapid industrialization, and inadequate infrastructure in border cities increase environmental problems and risks associated with human health. These stressors threaten the quality of life in the region and raise concerns about the interdependence of environmental sustainability and human health. Border residents suffer from exposure to poor air and water quality, residual agricultural pesticides, increases in soil salinities, and heavy metal contaminants. Identifying the linkages between environmental factors and human health is complex and multifaceted. The ability to assess risks and implement policies to protect the environment and quality of life greatly increase in complexity along international borders, where social services, environmental regulations, lifestyles and cultural beliefs are distinct. Shared airshed and water resources require an integrated binational approach to assess risks and develop binational management strategies.

The USGS U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Health Initiative (BEHI) recognized the need for development of transboundary datasets, standards, and web mapping services under the guidance of multi-disciplinary researchers and in close collaboration with Federal entities in both the U.S. and Mexico, such as the Mexican Geography and Census Bureau (INEGI) and the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC). USGS geographers, biologists, hydrologists, and geologists searched for relevant datasets in both countries, assessed the data integrity, and developed sound scientific approaches to binationally integrate the data across the international border. The signing of the USGS and INEGI Project Annex Six provides the legal framework for public access to the best available harmonized binational geospatial datasets along the U.S.-Mexico border. The basic geospatial framework of the BEHI is based on the harmonization of the National level source data from INEGI and USGS, but also includes cooperation between various agencies in both countries. The decision to use watershed boundaries for the BEHI project instead of the administrative 1983 La Paz agreement, 100-kilometer boundary delineation, was based on the need to undertake an environmental approach to the problem instead of an administrative approach.

This project website provides access to the best available harmonized binational geospatial datasets along the U.S.-Mexico border, both through an Internet Web mapping viewer and a direct data download page. The datasets are available at various scales to allow both regional and local analysis. This project website also provides background project information, white papers describing methodology for binational dataset integration, links to publications and references, and static maps along the border.