Big Bend Region - Potential Impact of a Border Wall

Explore proposed border wall segments and the potential effects on flooding, riparian habitat, animal migration, visitor experience, wall visibility, and dark sky experience.

Map layers, filters, and legend

Segment coloring

Basemap

Quick filters Only POIs where wall is visible

Layers Watershed boundaries Riparian corridor Proposed wall Points of interest Potential crossings Viewshed raster Light from wall

Viewshed opacity

Light layer opacity

Legend

Wall segment rank

Low

Medium

High

POI type

POI

CAMP

TRIB

RAFTING

Raster overlays

Viewshed (aqua to pink)

Light from wall (blue to yellow)

Wall Impact (proposed) by Watershed Segment

Click a wall segment to inspect its attributes.

POI Summary

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How to read this

The proposed wall is symbolized by a rank (High, Medium, Low) based on these assumptions: Flooding assumes 15% of annual rainfall is runoff. Riparian habitat exists where shown at least seasonally. Crossings were estimated by desktop analysis considering slope, riparian cover, and historical crossing locations. Visitor experience would be adversely impacted by wall visibility and light exposure. Watershed boundaries are shown in dark grey. Points of interest are colored by type. The viewshed overlay (aqua to pink) shows everywhere a standard 30-foot border wall would be visible. The light visible overlay (blue to yellow) shows the potential 3-mile light pollution from standard 5K-15K lumen commercial bulbs.