IRSC: Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias
 


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Institute for Regional Studies
of the Californias
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive, AL 377
San Diego, CA 92182-6039

Location:Arts & Letters 377
Telephone: (619) 594-5423
Fax: (619) 594-5474
Email:irsc@mail.sdsu.edu

Last Update: 1/27/10

Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP)

IRSC is the SDSU representative for the Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP),  a university consortium dedicated to applied environmental research of the U.S.-Mexican border region. SCERP was created by the U.S. Congress in October 1990 in legislation that stated the consortium was to initiate a comprehensive analysis of possible solutions to the acute air, water quality, and hazardous waste problems that plague the United States-Mexico border region.

SCERP carries out its mission through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

SCERP is made up of five U.S. universities:

and five Mexican universities:

The Consortium is administered by a management committee consisting of a member from each SCERP university. Dr. Paul Ganster, of San Diego State University, is Chair of the SCERP Management Committee.

Since 1992, SCERP has provided funding for many SDSU faculty members for applied research projects on border environmental issues. Most of these projects have included partners from Mexican universities and SDSU students, both graduate and undergraduate. Over the years, SCERP funding has supported numerous Master’s theses and several Ph.D. dissertations. Many SDSU faculty have become experts on border environmental issues and have leveraged the relatively modest SCERP grants to larger research projects from other public and private sources. The SCERP projects have also been important for supporting partnerships with groups in the regional binational community, including industry and trade associations, environmental organizations, and local government. Current and past SCERP projects at SDSU include the following:

  • Kathleen Farley (Geography) “Linking Land Use and Policy in the Tijuana River Watershed”
  • Trent Biggs (Geography) “Sediment and Erosion in Urban Tijuana: Socioeconomic Interactions with Sediment Budgets under Rapid Urbanization of Marginal Lands”
  • Richard Wright (Geography) “GIS Based Decision Support System for Tecate, USA and Tecate, Mexico”
  • Kimberley Collins (Imperial Valley Campus, Public Administration) “Assessment of Perceptual and Objective Quality of Life Indicators in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region: Towards a Border-wide Longitudinal Database”
  • Richard Ryan (Imperial Valley Campus, Public Administration) “Designing a Binational Clean Air Trust (Bi-CAT) to Serve Local Governments Ameliorating Air Quality on the US-Mexican Border”
  • Jenny Quintana (Graduate School of Public Health) “Exposure to Traffic-related Air Pollution and Adverse Birth Outcomes in the California-Baja California Border Region”
  • Rick Gersberg (Graduate School of Public Health) “Viral Pathogens in the New River and an Evaluation of Human Health Risk Reduction by the Brawley Constructed Wetlands Demonstration Project”
  • Victor Ponce (Civil and Environmental Engineering) “Hydrology and Hydraulics for the Tecate Creek Corridor”
  • Alan Sweedler (Physics) “Energy and Security in Border Regions”

For more information about SCERP at SDSU, please contact:

Scott Wagner
Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP)
San Diego State University
Email: scerp@projects.sdsu.edu
Phone: (619) 594-5423

 
The statements found on this page/site are for informational purposes only.
While every effort is made to ensure that this information is up-to-date and accurate, official information can be found in the university publications.