Socio-economic issues(urban growth & human heath)

Major research questions• Where to locate land uses (binationally)• Mortality & morbidity related to environmental quality (unpaved

roads, air pollution, ……)• Predict where growth would occur and downstream impacts • Modeling of land use and transportation needs (evacuation as

well as work related, within watershed vs. county)• Pilot projects along the border to use GIS/layers and determine

applicability at community level• Land ownership• Effects of costs and benefits of treating waste water/air quality • Flood hazard in urban areas• Underlying incentives and what leads to urban growth• Rural areas concern for water supply/quality • Population growth (water availability, urban planning ….)

Data issues• How data are reported (both health, census and environmental)• Access to data• Standardization – health and environment • private versus public health data• Accuracy esp. in rural areas• Time frame representation - Real time data • Resolution• Cost • Economic issues on using information • Population census not frequent enough to keep up with

population changes – demand based on income level• Need to conduct focused surveys • Change detection issues • Depoliticize data (greater public access to data currently

available)• Infrastructure projects lacking interface

Scale issues

• Scale will be determined by particular research questions

• Raw formats require general conversions and projection changes

Progress made• SCERP project has created tons of data and models, economics,

natural resources (holistic) • Technology (water supply, software compatibility, data analysis

integration) • sharing data/making data available• USGS and INEGI partnership • Health data comparability (ICD 9 & 10)• USGS working with SGM (Servicio (?) Geologico Mexicano)• Border Health Viewer (EROS data etc..)• Partnerships (national, municipal, local)• state and municipal industries are more open to using GIS • Border Environmental Health progress • standards for shapefiles (projections etc..)• Agua peria and Yaquo success story for USGS in terms of infrastructure • ESRI donating software to government agencies involved and

universities that bridge inoperability issues

Barriers to overcome• Time constraints• Money• Standardization• Language• Scale • Data sharing problems in both public and private sectors • Proprietary nature of data• Obtaining data• Continuity of data• Need to make data more useful for pulling up statistics and

meaning • Lack of awareness & communication of needs• Lack of trained students• Private industry (ESRI) with exclusive contracts.

Recommendations

• Website containing list of data sources, available data ……