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Mapping Socio-Environmentally Vulnerable Populations Access and Exposure to Ecosystem Services at the U.S.- Mexico Borderlands
Citation:
Norman, L. A., M. Villarreal, F. Lara-Valencia, Y. YUAN, W. Nie, S. Wilson, G. Amaya, AND R. Sleeter. Mapping Socio-Environmentally Vulnerable Populations Access and Exposure to Ecosystem Services at the U.S.- Mexico Borderlands. Applied Geography. ELSEVIER, AMSTERDAM, Holland, 34:413-424, (2012).
Impact/Purpose:
The paper begins with a brief introduction to the US-Mexico border and then provides a description of local economic and environmental concerns in the Santa Cruz Watershed study area. Following this, the binational classification and mapping of residential areas in the watershed is described using a composite index of vulnerability that combines merged census variables and colonias. Colonias (or colonias marginales in Mexico) are neighborhoods in the US-Mexico border that lack adequate infrastructure or housing. This composite index provides the potential to compare physical exposure to nonpoint source pollution or flooding, exacerbated by climate change, with populations in the watershed. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate an ecosystem services assessment that enables the visualization of social and biophysical sciences across International boundaries, in an online decision support tool. The methodology shows how to identify whether environmental justice neighborhoods or vulnerable populations are paying the costs and/or reaping the benefits of management decisions, climate change, and urbanization scenarios.
Description:
The USGS is developing a binational decision support tool to understand the exchange of ecosystem services in the Santa Cruz Watershed located on the border between Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Ecosystem services are life-sustaining benefits human societies receive from the environment, including clean water, soil stabilization, and flood control. Ecosystem services assessment must include addressing how changes and tradeoffs in ecosystem services impact human well-being and quality of life. Here, a modified socio-environmental vulnerability index is applied to the census data for the binational Santa Cruz Watershed to locate the vulnerable populations for comparison with biophysical models in a binational ecosystem services assessment tool. The modified –SEVI is transferable to other borderland watersheds and provides a first step to address environmental justice in binational decision-making.