U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey
Fact Sheet 2004-3070
August 2004
| The Colonias Monitoring Program provides a publicly accessible, binational, GIS database to enable civic leaders and c itizens to inventory, analyze, and monitor growth, housing, and infrastructure in border communities. High-technology tools are provided to support planning efforts and development along the border, using a sustainable and comprehensive approach. The collective information can be used by nongovernmental organizations in preparing grant and loan applications for community-improvement projects.. |
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in cooperation with the Mexican Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática (INEGI), have developed a joint project to create Internet-enabled geographic information systems (GISes) that will help cities along the United States-Mexico border manage issues related to urban growth and low-income housing developments.
HUD defines colonias as rural neighborhoods within 150 miles
of the border that lack adequate infrastructure or housing, as well as
other basic services. The colonias typically have high poverty rates,
making it difficult for residents to pay for roads, sanitary-water and
sewer systems, minimum-standard housing, street lighting, and other services.
Colonias are scattered along the border as makeshift settlements, commonly
on private land. Because these settlements have been established outside
the formally sanctioned governance of nearby cities and towns, colonias
residents have traditionally struggled to gain access to the public services
available in those communities.
Figure 1. A house in a colonia of Agua Prieta, Sonora. Photograph
by Hugo B. Rodríguez-Gallegos.
This joint project delineated colonias, developed geospatial databases describing infrastructure and land use, and established a framework for distributing World Wide Web-based GIS decision-support systems for the sister-city areas. "Sister" or "twin" cities are those communities where a city in one country borders a city in another, creating a large urban area separated by administrative boundaries.
To develop the GIS databases, we integrated data from The National Map (USGS), the U.S. Census Bureau, and INEGI and worked with binational partners, including Federal, State, county, and town representatives, as well as interested youth and advocacy groups. Each Web-based mapping site incorporates common-base data layers, including transportation, digital orthophoto quadrangles (DOQs), digital raster graphics (DRGs), Landsat imagery, colonia boundaries, hydrography, demographics, and geographic names.
The application
Figure 2. The sister cities of Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras, El Paso/Ciudad
Juárez, Douglas/Agua Prieta, and Nogales/Nogales were chosen as
project sites because of their location on the border and their international
manufacturing and commercial opportunities, which have led to rapid spread
of the colonias ( Web-mapping services located at http://tx.usgs.gov/geography/prj_HUD.htm).
On the basis of local partnership opportunities, the GIS database developed for each sister-city pair includes additional layers that can facilitate planning for urban growth and the colonias' infrastructure needs. The sister cities of Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras, El Paso/Ciudad Juárez, Douglas/Agua Prieta, and Nogales/Nogales were chosen as project sites because of their location on the border and their international manufacturing and commercial opportunities, which have led to rapid spread of the colonias.
Figure 3. Waterlines and sewerlines in El Paso, Texas.
The Web-based GIS database for El Paso/Ciudad Juárez was developed under local partnership with the binational Paso Del Norte Mapping for Public Access collaboration, administered by the city of El Paso and the Instituto Municipal de Investigación y Planeación. Local data layers include such critical infrastructure as police, fire stations, hospitals, schools, boundaries for enterprise communities, "empowerment zones," and police, school, voter, and irrigation districts. Future plans include incorporation of local data from Doña Ana County, New Mexico, and geospatial-database access to the most current El Paso County Colonias Regional Water and Wastewater Plan.
Local partners that contributed data for Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras include the Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments, the Texas Water Development Board, and the city of Eagle Pass. Specific data layers include parcel ownership, waterlines and sewerlines, and critical infrastructure features. Future plans include incorporating zoning information, transportation-development plans, and Maverick County colonias master annexation plans.
Partners that contributed geospatial data for Douglas/Agua Prieta to develop base maps for this project include the Border Environment Cooperation Commission-Comisión de Cooperación Ecológica Fronteriza (BECC-COCEF), Cochise County, Arizona, the city of Douglas, and the Municipio de Agua Prieta, Sonora. With the help of community members in the cities of Douglas and Agua Prieta, waterlines and sewer lines, inadequate housing structures, and colonias were identified and digitized. These data can be viewed in concert with resources identified by local youth groups and by other locality-reference information.
Nogales/NogalesMany partners contributed geospatial data for Nogales/Nogales
to develop base maps for this project, including the Secretaría
de Infraestructura Urbana y Ecología (SIUE), the Arizona Department
of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), the Instituto del Medio Ambiente y el
Desarrollo Sustentable (IMADES), the Comisión de Agua Potable y
Alcantarillado del Estado de Sonora (COAPAES), the University of Arizona
Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, the city of Nogales, Arizona,
and the Municipio de Nogales, Sonora. Community members in the cities
used waterlines, sewerlines, and inadequate housing structures to help
identify colonias. Those areas identified by community members of Nogales,
Sonora, were also identified by the SIUE as neighborhoods that are either
"popular dwellings" or "precarious constructions,"
and these homogeneous areas can now be visualized online.
Figure 4. Web-based GIS decision-support system established for Nogales/Nogales.
U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática
Where to go for more informationFor more information, contact: Edited by George A. Havach |
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