To develop effective strategies to alleviate this problem, the source of these contaminants must be determined and measurements of how much the air quality would change as a result of changes in emissions at different sources needs to be assessed. Studies to address these questions require a great amount of geographical spatial data. The use of the GIS will facilitate the separate analysis of individual emission sources or emission source areas to investigate their relative importance to the air quality at Big Bend during different times of the year. The area covered will include both sides of the border and will be large enough to include the most likely emission sources and regions such as Carbon I and II, the Texas Gulf Coast, and Monterrey. Besides determining the relative significance of the various sources of atmospheric contaminants, the information in the database will also be useful for planning future intensive measurement programs for the area.
Project is still ongoing.