Sustainable Development in San Diego-Tijuana: Environmental, Social, and Economic Implications of Interdependence

by Mark John Spalding (Editor)

The environment of the San Diego-Tijuana region is in a state of serious deterioration, largely because it has followed patterns of unsustainable development. Addressing environmental degradation in this transborder context presents challenges not generally found within single-nation ecosystems. For example, San Diego-Tijuana forms the hub of an intense demographic dynamic that links a highly developed country with a developing nation. The region is also an important binational industrial zone, with all the pressures on natural resources that this implies, especially in Tijuana, home to a vast maquiladora sector. And, by definition, the region is subject to a confusing mosaic of international, federal, tribal, state, and local agencies and jurisdictions. The contributors to this volume examine the factors that affect prospects for sustainable development in the San Diego-Tijuana transborder region in light of these multiple considerations. These factors include economic integration; links between growth, quality of life, and the environment; post-NAFTA institutional and policy directions; and the roles of NGOs, universities and, and the private sector.

99 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1999