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A complete methodology for long-term water supply planning is presented. Based upon the characteristics of the water resources development planning problem (nonlinearity of cost functions, and hydrologic variables), the author rejects the seeking of "optimal" solutions and supports the seeking of "good enough" solutions. To answer the questions that are involved in long-term water supply planning, it is proposed to break down the problem into two simpler ones to be solved in a sequential fashion. Although mathematical guarantee of optimality cannot be assured, the introduction of physical and engineering constraints greatly increases the confidence in the final results. The proposed methodology allows deep analysis of the hydrologic aspects involved in water resources planning. The depth of hydrologic analysis is only restricted by available data and technology. In this respect, a method for synthetic generation of monthly runoff records in ungaged streams is proposed. An application of the methodology to the development of a Mexico City water supply plan is presented in full detail to appreciate its usefulness. Mexico City population forecast for the year 2000 is 28 million people. The estimated water demand in that year is 105 m³/sec, more than twice the present water supply of 50 m³/sec. To satisfy this demand, water has to be brought from four basins more than 150 km distant, and located at elevations more than 1,000 m below Mexico City's elevation (2,300 m above mean sea level). The water supply plan which resulted from this study indicates the most recommendable sequence for the development of the four basins, and the amount of water to be obtained from each one.

The most serious problems of urban transport in developing countries involve traffic congestion, insufficient space for pedestrians and other non-motorised modes, poor public transit service, the increasing attractiveness of the automobile due to rising incomes, and the chronic lack of financial resources required to make a concerted problem-solving effort. Many of the solutions suggested by planners and consultants from developed countries are both expensive and require a substantial time investment before the benefits can be realised. Others are politically unfeasible or not well-suited to the needs of the city in less developed countries. An indigenous response to the inadequate provision of urban transport in developing countries is the establishment of intermediate forms of public transport, such as jitneys or fixed-route shared taxis. These are able to provide levels of speed, comfort and convenience comparable to those of travel by private car, at considerably lower cost. Jitneys are relatively energy-efficient and consume much less road space per passenger than do private automobiles. The jitney originally developed in North America during the First World War, largely as a response to inadequate public transit service, but virtually disappeared again within a few years since the street railway operators were able to have legislation passed that made jitney operation uneconomic. In Third World cities, jitneys developed independently, and have enjoyed great success, in part due to a much greater demand for public transport and to fewer restrictive regulations. Mexico City is one of the largest urban areas in the developing countries and has a public transport system that includes a very extensive network of jitney services, several different classes of motor buses, trolley coaches, trams, four separate types of taxi services as well as a fast and efficient Metro system. These various elements of public transport are very interdependent and complementary, making remarkably good use of the available road space. A detailed examination of the jitney system in Mexico City, its regulation, organisation and economics was undertaken through personal observation and discussions as well as using an intensive survey of both jitney drivers and passengers. This has revealed that the jitneys are of great value, providing fast, frequent, comfortable and convenient public transportation which serves as a genuine alternative to private cars. The flexible nature of the jitneys makes them very demand-responsive and thereby efficient providers of urban transport. The jitneys employ a large number of people and are a profitable enterprise, contributing positively to the urban economy of Mexico City. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Thesis. 1975. M.Arch.A.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / Also issued by Urban Settlement Design Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. / Bibliography: p.108-109. / M.Arch.A.S.

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Settlement patterns on the urban fringe can present a host of threats to sociopolitical and biophysical sustainability, at the personal, municipal, and ecosystem scale. Mexico City’s expansive growth has forced the region’s poorest inhabitants to the farthest margins in the neighboring State of Mexico, where they often live in conditions of personal hardship and settle in patterns that threaten the ecological health of environmentally sensitive areas. Following interviews with practitioners in three periurban municipalities in the Valley of Mexico, this report examines how local land use regulators interpret the vulnerabilities facing communities in their jurisdictions and presents a typology of vulnerabilities. The report explores the processes of politicization that produce and re-produce the vulnerabilities facing individuals, communities and ecosystems. Several concrete policy recommendations are made for incorporating holistic thinking about vulnerability into government decision-making, and resources are provided for further research. / text

As municipalities in the developing world are struggling to deal with the ever-increasing rate of residential trash generation, many have embraced the practice of diverting organic waste to composting plants. However, because most models for implanting new Solid Waste Management (SWM) programs have emerged from the experiences of municipalities in the industrialized world, they often gloss over the particular social, cultural and economic contexts that make SWM programming particularly challenging in the developing world. In Mexico City, the absence of curbside collection, and a trash workforce comprised of both formal and informal trash collectors, have created unique challenges for the municipality’s composting program that was initiated in 2004. This report attempts to highlight that the limited success of the program thus far might be rooted in the program’s design, which has largely ignored the needs of the trash workers who are largely held responsible for its implementation. / text

During the last half of the nineteenth century, Mexico City residents started to experience an increase in the frequency and intensity of fires. Residents cited the presence of fossil fuels, the introduction of large factories and electrical apparatuses, and the growing population density as the primary reasons that urban fires became more prevalent. Fire hazards acted as catalysts for social change in Mexico's capital. They created a ripple effect across society, altering everything from city planning to medical advancements to business endeavors, shaping the ways that people experienced a period of significant urban growth. Fire forced people to adjust the ways that they lived their lives, the ways that they conducted business, and the ways that they thought about their city. Rather than looking at one great fire, this study contributes to a growing branch of disaster studies that examines the effects of much smaller, but far more frequent hazards. By drawing on the experiences of residents from different social groups (business owners, firemen, engineers, city officials, entrepreneurs, insurance agents, and physicians), this study shows how residents reacted differently to fire and how they feared and coped with the nearly constant presence of risk. Prevailing historiography of this time period in Mexico is often characterized by studies of the top-down projects of the dictator Porfirio Diaz, but this project shows how social actors collectively transformed their city in response to an environmental threat.

In the two past decades, the topic of water resources has occurred more abundantly, the water has become the object of many research institutions. While in the 19th and 20th centuries of human progress took place under the sign of coal and oil, today is coming to the forefront the issue of availability of water resources and the related need for effective management which would assure an even distribution. This diploma thesis aims to highlight the problems of water resource management, offers options which would be theoretical focused and an example case study to show what the consequences may have a system which is implemented in isolation without consideration for other inter-sector policy. The context which involves on the current situation of water shortage in Mexico City is identified and analyzed.

In this thesis, I propose that Mexican water works during the Porfiriato influenced the development of modernity because of hydrology’s link between society and environment. These two canals in particular provide a window on the relationship between the state and environment that connects the two in the efforts of state formation. The Gran Canal and the Canal de la Viga both worked as tools for social and political construction for Mexicans to imagine modernity for themselves and for their country.