Peripheral Urbanization and Environmental Impact in Mexico City
Mexico City is the capital of Mexico, and the countrys biggest city. In 2005 this megacity had just under 20 million inhabitants in the whole metropolitan area. Although over the last twenty years the city has registered a slower population growth, its urban area continues to expand, mainly towards northern and eastern zones, and to a lesser extent towards the southern area. The particular problem with the expansion to the south is that urbanization is invading a so-called Preservation Zone (Suelo de Conservacion) that represents a territory subject to preservation given its ecological value in terms of climate regulation, water recharge, forest communities, agricultural cultivation, and hilly landscape. Indeed its aquifers supply a great proportion of the water consumed by the capital city. In this particular space, there is a process of diffused urbanization with very low densities in the Preservation Zone. In recent years it has been possible to identify a high number of illegal settlements of low income populations within its limits. This is a continuous, small-scale process, but in the medium and long term it means a significant loss of land with high ecological value. Also, this all happens despite land use planning regulations being in existence since the late 1970s. From 1970 to 1995 just over 10 thousand hectares were lost including irrigation land and forest areas. Several important questions arise from this situation that are discussed in this paper: what the dynamics and main patterns of urbanization in the Preservation Zone are, to what extent this urban process contributes to sustainability, and what the main pressures in terms of environmental degradation in the Preservation Zone are.
urban sustainability environmental degradation peripheral urbanization Mexico City
Adrian Guillermo Aguilar
Institute of Geography, Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico
国际会议
广州
英文
156-175
2007-08-06（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）