SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, has announced it will finance a study in the region to see what impacts global warming is creating.
Hernando Durán Cabrera, an environmentalist in Tijuana, says the study will take place over a two-year period looking into how climate change is affecting the landscape in Tijuana and San Diego.
“They provide tools from the first world, all the georeferencing technology using sophisticated methods and satellites, to help us predict events that might occur in the region,” he said.
Durán Cabrera emphasized environmental problems don’t recognize borders, something that demands a plan of action to combat climate change.
“We need to see how we can mitigate it, develop solutions for anything that might arise, what we need to do to fight it,” he said.
Durán Cabrera says Tijuana’s Commission for Public Services, the National Water Commission and other agencies associated with the environment will help gather data.
“Temperatures are going up, something that is creating forest fires. It’s also affecting people’s health,” he said. “We need to figure out how it’s happening in our area.”
According to SANDAG, The California-Baja California BRP will study these conditions and identify strategies, programs, and projects that will help enhance and protect transportation infrastructure and the people who depend on it.
It will take place over an area that is 10 miles north and south of the international border, from the Pacific Ocean east to the California-Arizona state border.
The study is being funded through a $3 million Climate Adaptation Planning Grant provided by Caltrans.