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Abstract
This paper describes a geographic information system (GIS)‐based, land use runoff model that estimates the annual mass emission of copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) from the binational Tijuana River watershed (TRW). This model estimates that the urbanized portion of the City of Tijuana, Mexico, accounted for 37 to 47 percent of the actual downstream loading of these metals to the Tijuana Estuary and coastal ocean. The fraction of loading contributed by open space was about the same (31-44%), although this land use comprised about 90 percent of the total watershed area. Modeled estimates of the annual mass emission of heavy metals are in reasonable agreement with actual measurements, particularly for zinc (within about 10%), thereby suggesting that GIS‐based modeling may be useful for predicting nonpoint source pollutant loading in a variety of border development scenarios.
Notes
Englert is an environmental coordinator at General Atomics Corporation; Brown is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at West Chester University; Placchi is Adjunct Faculty at the Department of Geography and Regional Development at the University of Arizona; and Gersberg is Professor of Environmental Health at the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University. The authors would like to thank the Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP) for its financial support of this study.