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Climate Services for Coping with Climate Change, Drought, and
Extreme Heat in the México-U.S. Border Region
nerships, knowledge exchange networks, collaborative research,
and communities of practice. The NIHHIS RGB heat-health pilot
project, now close to one year old, provides a gateway for further
collaboration between diverse partners and sectors on a broad
range of climate-related health risks. Moreover, this partnership
has strong interest and backing from urban resilience initiatives
aimed at addressing short- and long-term climate-related risks
(e.g., urban heat island, projections for longer and hotter heat
waves, dust storms, floods), and these initiatives also seek the
tangible co-benefits of investments in adaptations that promote
resilience (e.g., improved livability, improved air quality, reduced
greenhouse gas emissions, urban centers that are more attractive
to businesses and investors).
A variety of NGOs are working with urban planners and sus-
tainability managers in the RGB Pilot cities to support research,
innovations, and implement resilience strategies that address con-
cerns related to climate variability and change. In addition, El
Paso and Las Cruces are members of the Western Adaptation
Alliance, a community of practice on adaptation to climate vari-
ability and change, among urban sustainability directors. Anoth-
er key opportunity is a recent collaboration between SAGARPA
and the USDA, to develop regional climate hubs to address the
concerns and needs of agricultural producers and forest resource
managers. The U.S. EPA has played an important role, working
with Mexican agency counterparts from environment and health
ministries, to address environmental health and quality issues,
through initiatives like Border 2020 and the Joint Advisory Com-
mittee (JAC) for the Improvement of Air Quality in the Ciudad
Juárez, Chihuahua, El Paso, Texas, and Doña Ana County, New
México Air Basin.
There is already a strong set of partnerships in the region, between
the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), the Universidad Autónoma
